Animal Person
Stories
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The highly anticipated new book of short fiction from the O. Henry Prize winner Alexander MacLeod—a magnificent collection about the needs, temptations, and tensions that exist just beneath the surface of our lives.
Startling, suspenseful, and deeply humane, yet alert to the undertow of our darker instincts, the eight stories in Animal Person illuminate what it means to exist in the perilous space between desire and action, and to have your faith in what you hold true buckle and give way.
A petty argument between two sisters is interrupted by an unexpected visitor. Adjoining motel rooms connect a family on the brink of a new life with a criminal whose legacy will haunt them for years to come. A connoisseur of other people’s secrets is undone by what he finds in a piece of lost luggage. In the wake of a tragic accident, a young man must contend with what is owed to the living and to the dead. And in the O. Henry Prize–winning story “Lagomorph,” a man’s relationship with his family’s long-lived pet rabbit opens up to become a profound exploration of how a marriage fractures.
Muscular and tender, beautifully crafted, and alive with an elemental power, these stories explore the struggle for meaning and connection in an age when many of us feel cut off from so much, not least ourselves. This is a collection that beats with raw emotion and shimmers with the complexity of our shared human experience, and it confirms Alexander MacLeod’s reputation as a modern master of the short story.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Macleod (Light Lifting) returns with a brilliant collection mainly set in Canada, bringing spot-on characterizations to his protagonists as they navigate tumultuous changes. "Lagomorph" examines a family's evolving relationship with their pet rabbit, Gunther. Narrator David and his wife Sarah amicably separate after their three children are grown, leaving him alone with Gunther and reflecting on how the rabbit's presence in their lives had faded but now is prominent. In "The Dead Want," a 20-year-old college student named Joe makes the long drive back to his father's remote hometown in Nova Scotia for the funeral of his cousin Beatrice. Along the way, passing through Toronto and then Montreal to pick up a relative, Joe reflects on the different paths they took, despite being close as children, born six weeks apart. A new mother named Amy in "Once Removed" is reluctant to visit her boyfriend's demanding great-aunt Greet, who lives alone in a retirement community and wants to meet the baby. The trek requires a series of bus transfers across Montreal on a 90º day, plus Amy has a sneaking suspicion that Greet has ulterior motives. Throughout, Macleod offers piercing insights into how his characters see themselves in relation to their families. This is a winner.
