“I devoured Annie Hartnett’s Unlikely Animals. “ Unlikely Animals possesses such tenderness and empathy for a world that wears us down and ruins us, a world that sometimes offers a glimmer of hope, and Hartnett knows how to turn up the brilliance of that light and wield it to do magical things.” -Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here and The Family Fang This unapologetically genre-bending tribute to life and death, and the beautiful weirdness found in both, has potential to spark exceptional book club discussions.” - Shelf Awareness In this, her second novel, Hartnett lands an astonishing leap as a storyteller.” - The Rumpus But Unlikely Animals is a broader, brassier, and even more fiercely tender story. It bears some similarity to Hartnett’s much- loved first novel, Rabbit Cake. . “This tragicomic novel is heartfelt, touching, and delightfully quirky. You’ll fall in love with the offbeat cast of characters (both living and dead) and find yourself rooting for them right through the last page.” - Good Housekeeping Set against the backdrop of a small town in the throes of a very real opioid crisis, Unlikely Animals is a tragicomic novel about familial expectations, imperfect friendships, and the possibility of resurrecting that which had been thought irrevocably lost. Emma isn't really trying to be a hero - but somehow she and her father set in motion just the kind of miracle the town needs. Emma’s dad is the only one convinced the young woman might still be alive, and Emma is hopeful he could be right. The police say they don’t spend much time looking for drug addicts.

This ghost has been giving Clive some ideas on how to spend his final days.Įmma arrives home knowing she must face her dad’s illness, her mom’s judgement, and her younger brother’s recent stint in rehab, but she’s unprepared to find that her former best friend from high school is missing, with no one bothering to look for her.

Clive Starling has been hallucinating small animals, as well as visions of the ghost of a long-dead naturalist, Ernest Harold Baynes, once known for letting wild animals live in his house.

A med-school dropout, she’s come back to small-town Everton, New Hampshire, to care for her father, dying from a mysterious brain disease. Natural-born healer Emma Starling once had big plans for her life, but she’s lost her way. Both funny and sad, the kind of story we like best. It was a source of entertainment at Maple Street Cemetery. UNLIKELY ANIMALS is OUT NOW from Ballantine/Random House.Ī lost young woman returns to small-town New Hampshire under the strangest of circumstances in this one-of-a-kind novel of life, death, and whatever comes after from the acclaimed author of Rabbit Cake.

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