You know when you finish a book and you just know that book will occupy your mind for a long time? The Animals in That Country is one of those. I haven’t read a book like it and I don’t think I will again.

In an undisclosed country, a virus begins to spread that allows the infected to communicate to animals. The speech is almost poetic, full of metaphors and stunted syntax that (initially) confounds those hearing it. The virus starts with mammals, and victims steadily lose their sanity as they begin to hear birds, rodents, and finally insects.

The story follows Jean Bennett, an employee at the local zoo owned by her estranged daughter-in-law. As the virus spreads and begins to cause havoc around the Zoo, Jean’s hippy son – infected by the virus – swings by and takes her granddaughter Kimberly away, up north to ‘see the whales’. Jean, succumbing to the infection herself, takes her beloved dingo Sue with her on a road trip to find her granddaughter.

This book is simultaneously laugh-out-loud funny and soul-crushingly depressing, in a way I can only describe as reminiscent of Waiting for Godot. Grandma Jean is also one of the best protagonists I’ve read in forever – she’s almost an anti-hero at times but her connection to Kimberly and Sue is so human, and at times heartbreaking.

It’s worth mentioning that this novel isn’t a preachy animal rights book; rather it asks you to consider your relationship with animals – the ones you eat, or the ones you consider family, and everything in between.

Reviewed by Max Lewis