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'Hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, and allergic to bullshit, Jean is not your usual grandma. She’s never been good at getting on with other humans, apart from her beloved granddaughter, Kimberly. Instead, she surrounds herself with animals, working as a guide in an outback wildlife park. And although Jean talks to all her charges, she has a particular soft spot for a young dingo called Sue.
'Then one day, disturbing news arrives of a pandemic sweeping the country. This is no ordinary flu: its chief symptom is that its victims begin to understand the language of animals — first mammals, then birds and insects, too. But as the flu progresses, the unstoppable voices become overwhelming, and many people begin to lose their minds.
'When Jean’s infected son, Lee, takes off with Kimberly, heading south, Jean feels the pull to follow her kin. Setting off on their trail, with Sue the dingo riding shotgun, they find themselves in a stark, strange world in which the animal apocalypse has only further isolated people from other species.
'Bold, exhilarating, and wholly original, The Animals in That Country asks what it means to be human — and what would happen, for better or worse, if we finally understood what animals were saying.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Notes
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Dedication: For grandparents, especially my Ma and Nana. And for animals - all of us.
Epigraph: In this country the animals have the faces of animals. - Margaret Atwood, 'The Animals in That Country'.
But I'm afraid that somewhere in his wild dog's heart, he secretly despises me. - Helen Garner, 'Red Dog: A Mutiny'
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Translating the World
2021
single work
essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , September / Spring vol. 80 no. 3 2021; (p. 61-71) 'In the summer of 2019–20 I worked in the customer service department of an Australian zoo. I was used to cycling to work, gliding past traffic and cutting through parklands in my khaki uniform. But I found myself driving much more than usual. Cycling resulted in weariness and respiratory irritation, as I breathed in toxic particulate matter. Bushfire smoke smothered the city, forcing us indoors. With the smoke settling for days at a time, I relied more on my exhaust-spewing vehicle to get to work. The dark irony was hard to miss.' (Introduction) -
Speculative Pandemic Challenge to Human Exceptionalism
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , vol. 25 no. 2 2021;
— Review of The Animals in that Country 2020 single work novel -
Laura Jean McKay Wins the Arthur C Clarke Award
2021
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 28 September 2021; -
Laura Jean McKay's Pandemic Fiction The Animals in That Country Wins Victorian Premier's Literary Awards' $100,000 Top Gong
2021
single work
column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , February 2021;'Victorian author Laura Jean McKay has won the top prize at the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards with her debut novel, which imagines a viral pandemic in Australia that gives humans the ability to understand animals.' (Introduction)
-
Animal Perspective : Breaking the Language Barrier
Laura McKay
(presenter),
Erin Hortle
(presenter),
Chris Flynn
(presenter),
2021
single work
interview
— Appears in: Griffith Review , January no. 71 2021;
-
Laura Jean McKay : The Animals in That Country
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 4-10 April 2020;
— Review of The Animals in that Country 2020 single work novel'The Animals in That Country, the debut novel of Laura Jean McKay, has certainly hit the jackpot for timeliness. The novel is about a virus that sweeps through Australia, leading to government lockdowns and generating widespread hysteria. That virus even has an association with animals, though the effects of the novel’s “Zooflu” are very different from those of Covid-19. Humans infected by the “talking animal disease” develop the discombobulating ability to understand non-human animals. Plot-wise and with regard to tone, this novel is a hybrid beast, sitting somewhere between the dystopia of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and the absurdity of Doctor Dolittle. However, as an attempt to reimagine how we understand our place in the animal world, this novel stands alone.' (Introduction)
-
The Adversary; The Animals in That Country; Only Mostly Devastated; Exciting Times; Stone Sky Gold Mountain; Almost A Mirror
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , April 2020;
— Review of The Adversary 2020 single work novel ; The Animals in that Country 2020 single work novel ; Only Mostly Devastated 2020 single work novel ; Stone Sky Gold Mountain 2020 single work novel ; Almost a Mirror 2020 single work novel -
Dr Doolittle Tale for Today
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 4 April 2020; (p. 16)
— Review of The Animals in that Country 2020 single work novel -
A Babble of Strange Voices : An Absorbing and Affecting Debut
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 421 2020; (p. 38)
— Review of The Animals in that Country 2020 single work novel'Talking animals in fiction have, for the most part, been confined to children’s or otherwise peripheral literature. Yet they often serve a serious purpose. Aesop’s fables, with their anthropoid wolves, frogs, and ants, have been put to use as moral lessons for children since the Renaissance. The ‘it-narrative’, fashionable in eighteenth-century England and perhaps best exemplified by Francis Coventry’s History of Pompey the Little: Or, the life and adventures of a lap-dog (1752), saw various animals expatiate their suffering at human hands.' (Introduction)
-
[Review] The Animals in That Country
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , July 2020;
— Review of The Animals in that Country 2020 single work novel'Laura Jean McKay’s novel asks us to see the world through animals’ eyes.'
-
As Coronavirus Keeps Us Apart, We Will Let the Animals In. I Hope We Do Them Justice
2020
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 4 April 2020;'In the age of Covid-19 we are taking comfort from animals and wildlife – but we should learn from them too.'
-
Animal Perspective : Breaking the Language Barrier
Laura McKay
(presenter),
Erin Hortle
(presenter),
Chris Flynn
(presenter),
2021
single work
interview
— Appears in: Griffith Review , January no. 71 2021; -
Laura Jean McKay's Pandemic Fiction The Animals in That Country Wins Victorian Premier's Literary Awards' $100,000 Top Gong
2021
single work
column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , February 2021;'Victorian author Laura Jean McKay has won the top prize at the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards with her debut novel, which imagines a viral pandemic in Australia that gives humans the ability to understand animals.' (Introduction)
-
Laura Jean McKay Wins the Arthur C Clarke Award
2021
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 28 September 2021; -
Translating the World
2021
single work
essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , September / Spring vol. 80 no. 3 2021; (p. 61-71) 'In the summer of 2019–20 I worked in the customer service department of an Australian zoo. I was used to cycling to work, gliding past traffic and cutting through parklands in my khaki uniform. But I found myself driving much more than usual. Cycling resulted in weariness and respiratory irritation, as I breathed in toxic particulate matter. Bushfire smoke smothered the city, forcing us indoors. With the smoke settling for days at a time, I relied more on my exhaust-spewing vehicle to get to work. The dark irony was hard to miss.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2021 nominated Ditmar Awards — Best Novel
- 2021 winner Arthur C. Clarke Award (US)
- 2021 longlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
- 2021 shortlisted ASAL Awards — ALS Gold Medal
- 2021 longlisted Sir Julius Vogel Awards — Best Novel