The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay

I was gripped by the overwhelmed and distraught characters who learned that we are part of nature, dependent upon it for our existence and survival but it can drive us mad.Īs I was nearing the final chapters, I heard that author McKay had won the coveted Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2021. The subtle yet resilient nurturing instincts of both human and animal infuses the story and this primitive and powerful connection twisted my brain. At first Dingo Sue is unintelligible until gradually Jean understands the patterns of mind matching physical dialogue, and ‘speech’ is cleverly enhanced by page layouts. The animals and birds are not anthropomorphised in the usual sense, and definitely not suitable for children. With a singular writing style, author Laura Jean McKay tackles a pandemic from a different angle. They meet rough characters and conmen but Jean believes in Sue’s unerring instincts leading them towards the hypnotic seashore. I trekked with them along dusty outback roads via devastated townships to reach the ocean. I may not like the disarray Jean and Dingo Sue get into as the pandemic spreads but it certainly makes riveting reading. Jean is careworn by events and decides to leave the native animal sanctuary with Dingo Sue to find her runaway family. Her initial despair permeates these early chapters, both for the animals and her wayward son who causes problems. People succumb as the virus spreads across the country, or they try to outrun it, and some eventually arrive at the animal park where alcoholic ranger Jean Bennett works. This book made me think, it made me cringe,Īnd it will stay in my mind for a long time.

Certainly a distinctive story with fear, confusion and confronting chapters involving the catastrophic side effects of human zooflu virus and the subsequent fallout for the animal world.

My reading was floundering until this gleaming gem came along! ‘The Animals in That Country’ is a novel with strange overtones and intense undercurrents. Australian native animals not include with book © Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2021

The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay