The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay
Jean is not your typical granny; she is a heavy drinker, a cusser, and averse to crap. With the exception of her cherished granddaughter Kimberly, she has never been excellent at getting along with people. Instead, she works as a guide at an outback wildlife park and surrounds herself with animals. Although Jean communicates with all of her animals, she has a special affection for a juvenile dingo named Sue.
The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay
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As alarming news of a pandemic spreads across the nation, Jean realizes this is no ordinary virus and that its primary symptom is that its victims start to speak animal languages—first those of mammals, then those of birds and insects, too. As the illness worsens, the incessant voices grow deafening, and many people—including Lee, Jean’s infected son—start to go insane.
Jean feels compelled to follow her family when he and Kimberly set out on their journey south.
They set out on their path, Sue the dingo riding shotgun, and arrive in a harsh, unfamiliar world where the apocalypse of the animals has only served to further alienate humans from other species. The Animals in That Country poses the provocative, electrifying, and entirely original question of what would transpire—for better or worse—if we finally comprehended what animals were saying.
The Animals in that Country’s central idea is that there is a pandemic, but that it is caused by a virus that allows people to begin to comprehend animal speech. But not in a Doctor Dolittle manner when we may just have a conversation with them. It resembles the Wittgenstein dictum, “If a lion could speak, we could not understand him,” more than anything else.
The strangeness we encounter every day in our ordinary world, the extent to which we deny our senses in the name of normalcy, and the complete mystery at the core of our interactions with animals are all shown in McKay’s novel. The imperfect human characters in McKay’s book are often shown to be both cowardly and heroic, confused and clear-sighted, while the animals are complicated and well-drawn. The story’s melancholy conclusion, which is reminiscent of our greatest regrets, brings the story’s building sense of loss to a disturbing crescendo. This exquisitely written tale is for those who are fascinated by the world of animals and the human quest to establish proper relationships with our non-human companion travellers. Looking forward to Laura Jean McKay’s future work.
