The Memory of Animals: From the Costa Novel Award-winning author of Unsettled Ground

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Still, in light of the gruesome devastation that fills the city, never mind pressing questions of food and fresh water, it all feels a bit self-indulgent and Fuller’s insights into motive and meaning are too thin. There’s no one left, or hardly anyone. No one’s coming. At some point we’re going to have to go out and get more food and other stuff, or one of us is. Surely it’s better if the person who does that has the best chance of not catching it?’” It’s a line that could feature in the HBO series The Last of Us, one of many zeitgeist touches to be found in Claire Fuller’s new novel The Memory of Animals. The English author’s fifth novel is a taut and atmospheric read, an exploration of captivity, sacrifice and survival in a post-apocalyptic world. This book has been well received so far and I’m certainly an outlier with my review, so please read it and make up your own mind. While I did learn a lot about the lifecycle of the octopus, I just did not like this book enough. ⁣ plus…. the wonderful inserts about octopuses, ocean creatures that are most famous for having eight arms and bulbous heads. My fifth novel, The Memory of Animals will be published in the UK by Penguin on 20th April 2023, and by Tin House in the US and Canada in June 2023. It will also be published in Spain, Catalonia, Germany and France.

The darkness, eeriness, almost dystopian world is thrust upon us as we continue to read. Especially as the group finds their way out of the clinic, and through London. The world is experiencing a pandemic with traumatic symptoms such as memory loss, sensory damage, swelling, and death. The world is in desperate need of a vaccine. Neffy, a disgraced marine biologist, along with her fellow volunteers: Rachel, Leon, Yahiko, and Piper, agree to take part in a vaccine trial. Some will be infected with the virus while others are not. The stakes are high as this might just be the last chance to save the world! The danger and terror are mounting in the outside world as people try to get supplies, gather resources all while falling ill and chaos ensues. In the face of a pandemic, an unprepared world scrambles to escape the mysterious disease causing sensory damage, nerve loss, and, in most cases, death. Neffy, a disgraced and desperately indebted twenty-seven-year-old marine biologist, registers for an experimental vaccine trial in London—perhaps humanity's last hope for a cure. Though isolated from the chaos outside, she and the other volunteers—Rachel, Leon, Yahiko, and Piper—cannot hide from the mistakes that led them there.

Media Reviews

Plotwise there is double intrigue: the direness of the situation beyond the hospital walls, and an earlier mystery, involving Neffy and her father, that is revealed subtly and sensitively as the story unfolds. The superb ending ties everything together with a moving, tragic cohesiveness. The bleak twists and sudden shifts forward in time feel earned and in keeping with the world Fuller has created. As her caged animals make a bid for freedom, the reader will applaud their attempts to keep going against the likelihood of their endless numbered days. Sarah Gilmartin When Fuller releases something, you should probably pay attention. This dystopia is giving off thriller vibes with its pandemic reality, the complications of squid, and survival. An imaginative blend of science and spirit. . . . Claire Fuller has siphoned all of the beauty of being human into this work.

part* of the editor’s notes—(there is more)— and as a reader, I appreciate the way we are set up to begin this story! The Memory of Animals is clearly a Claire Fuller novel right from the off. It's strange and interesting and dystopian with the accent being on r I’m delighted to let you know that The Memory of Animals has won an AudioFile Earphones Award for the audio book, narrated by actress Genevieve Gaunt. The award is given to truly exceptional titles that excel in narrative voice and style, characterizations, suitability to audio, and enhancement of the text.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my proof copy of this book to read and review, all opinions are entirely my own.