‘Engrossing, subversive, and surprisingly profound, The Animals in That Country does something only the best fiction can do: it has the power to skew the reader’s perspective on the world. This story will stay with me for a long time, and its protagonist, Jean Bennett, will be with me even longer.’
J.P. Pomare, author of Call Me Evie
‘Deliriously strange, blackly hilarious, and completely exhilarating, The Animals in That Country is a wonderful debut from a genuinely original and exciting new voice.’
James Bradley, author of Clade
‘McKay is a master at building tension through sparse, abrupt language that mirrors Jean’s decades of alcohol abuse, and the excellent world-building is enhanced by the exquisite chemistry between Jean and her canine companion Sue. Visceral and discombobulating yet tender, The Animals in That Country will appeal to readers who enjoyed the animal-led stories in Ceridwen Dovey’s Only the Animals, and the foreboding road trip in Romy Ash’s Floundering.’
Books+Publishing
‘You know when you finish a book and you know that book will occupy your mind for a long time? The Animals in That Country is one of those. I haven’t read a book like it and I don’t think I will again ... The speech is almost poetic, full of metaphors and stunted syntax that (initially) confounds those hearing it ... This book is simultaneously laugh-out-loud funny and soul-crushingly depressing, in a way I can only describe as reminiscent of Waiting for Godot.’ FIVE STARS
Max Lewis, Good Reading
‘Funny, original, and heartbreakingly timely. A love letter to family, communication, and “battlers” everywhere — both human and non-human.’
R.W.R. McDonald, author of The Nancys
'A taut exploration of loneliness and devotion, The Animals In That Country is rich with raw heartache and strange, carnal poetry.’
Sue Rainsford, author of Follow Me to Ground
‘In this warm, wild, and irreverent debut, Laura Jean McKay takes us into the minds of animals to reveal the complexity of their lives. The Animals in That Country avoids the trap of anthropomorphism, showing instead the absurd, intense, and shifting bonds between humans and animals.’
Mireille Juchau, author of The World Without Us
‘An imaginative tour de force — assured, compelling, and utterly original, this book will change how you see the world. Laura Jean McKay's powers are in full evidence here: her singular gift for empathy, enviable storytelling chops, and deftly elegant language will shift your frame of reference and leave you altered, in the best of ways. A unique and important work that explores the bond between humans and animals — and indeed throws the whole dividing line between us into doubt.’
Meg Mundell, author of The Trespassers
‘Weird, wonderful and strangely moving. I will be thinking about this strange book, about Jean and Sue, for a long long time.’
Eloise Grills, author of Big Beautiful Female Theory
‘A wild and original ride of a read.’
New Idea
‘Laura Jean McKay, an expert in animal communication, has her animals speaking in hallucinogenic haikus — it’s disturbing but compelling, and somehow totally believable. I loved every bizarre, unexpected moment.’
Corinna Hente, Herald Sun
‘An incredible achievement in storytelling, and absolutely worth your time ... one of the best Australian novels of the year.’
Nicholas Wasiliev, Booktopia
‘Eerily prescient … The Animals in That Country offers a timely take on the fraught ways animals feature in our lives, and how devastating it would be if we heard what they had to say.’ FIVE STARS
Erin Stewart, ArtsHub
‘This is a work of not only remarkable linguistic skill but also one that brilliantly captures our relationship with the inhabitants of this wild world.’ FOUR STARS
Mitchell Jordan, The Big Issue
‘The genius stroke of The Animals in That Country is the preternatural ‘body talk’ of its animals ... an affecting book, one that gets remarkably close to the unknowable wildness of animal sentience.’
Jack Callil, The Age
‘A standout debut novel of 2020 ... Original, hugely entertaining and superbly crafted, this is one heck of a road-trip novel, whose timing and insights into human behaviour in a crisis could not be more prescient.’
Alison Huber, Readings Booksellers
‘Strikingly original ... It’s a tale that is at turns bizarre and surprisingly affecting, populated by a cast of richly idiosyncratic characters and posing timely questions about the ways we relate both to animals and to each other.’
Gemma Nisbet, The Weekend West
‘This is a beguiling, thought-provoking story penned with passion, intricate animals knowledge and great creativity ... Disturbing, challenging and addictive, the book prompts you to wonder about what animals are really thinking.’
Sue Wallace, The Weekly Times
‘McKay is a master of voice-driven narrative. I never thought a substance-abusing grandmother was just who I needed to take me on an apocalyptic road trip — and that long after I gulped the book down, I'd be haunted by the words of a dingo called Sue.’
Sofija Stefanovic, author of Miss Ex-Yugoslavia
‘This is an absorbing and affecting book, and one to which I’m able to pay the highest compliment: that, in the days after finishing it, the world felt different to me, its animals not speaking but not silent either.’
Ben Brooker, Australian Book Review
‘The beauty of this book is that it never quite goes where the reader expects it to go. McKay zigs when the reader expects her to zag. And the whole builds to a kind of slow-moving climax ... The Animals in That Country takes an intriguing premise and absolutely runs with it. While delivering one of the strangest road trips ever, McKay considers the nature of family, the human response to the unknown and our relationship with the animals kingdom, among other things.’
Robert Goodman, The Blurb
‘McKay has written a searing dystopian critique of our relationship with the natural world … Through poetic projections of what the animals might say if they could, McKay highlights our limited capacity to communicate with language, and our human-centric view of the natural order … Earthy, visceral, at-times obscene and all-too-real, The Animals In That Country is nevertheless compelling and oddly buoying … McKay is a masterful storyteller, and her talent truly shines in this quest for family and belonging.’
Sheree Strange, Primer
‘As we grapple with a worldwide pandemic, Australian author McKay’s novel is incredibly timely and feels all the more real for it … filled with humour, optimism, and grace: a wild ride worth taking. An eye-opening glimpse into a world that’s turned upside down and eventually becomes its own version of whole.’
Carol Gladstein, Booklist
‘A powerful, uncanny tale.’
Justine Jordan, The Guardian
‘[A] compelling and haunting debut … Scattered with dark humour and driven by a compelling plot, The Animals in That Country is an outstanding and timely examination of human morality. It will change the way you view both animals and the world.’
Chloë Cooper, Audrey Magazine
‘A hidden treasure … Read it!’
Foyles Bookstore
‘Part pandemic novel and part beast fable, McKay’s novel, which takes its title from a Margaret Atwood poem, imagines a disease that causes humans to understand animal language, down to the lowliest insect. Acerbic wildlife guide Jean and a dingo named Sue set off through the Australian Outback in pursuit of the former’s son, who has absconded south after losing his mind, like so many others, due to the new voices that now seemingly occupy every space.’
Publishers Weekly, ‘Going Viral: New Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020’
‘Disturbingly timely, The Animals In That Country chronicles the journey of one no-bullshit woman and her half-wild dingo as they race against a deadly pandemic. Jean is brilliantly crafted — unapologetically rough and yet filled with hidden vulnerability. McKay's tale pulled me in with its entertaining nature then dragged me under with its profound nuance.’
Laura Graveline, Brazos Bookstore
‘A fierce debut novel … Her writing about people is filthy, fresh and funny; this is prose on high alert, hackles up and teeth bared in every sentence. The novel becomes both a stirring attempt to inhabit other consciousnesses and a wry demonstration of the limits of our own language and empathy. ’
Justine Jordan, The Guardian
‘A heartfelt novel.’
Psychologies
‘Surprising and surprisingly-convincing characters, and a well-realised, inventive premise.’
Kate Evans, ABC News
‘A gritty and innovative wonder about an animal-borne virus (yep) that cracks opens channels between interspecies communication. The result is a raucous fever dream of a road story, evocative of Kenneth Cook, Hunter S. Thompson, and Ceridwen Dovey – but ultimately, McKay defies comparison.’
Josephine Rowe
‘A timely dystopian novel in which a dangerous flu sweeps across Australia, giving those infected the power to speak with animals, with dark, disturbing results.’
Maxine Beneba Clarke
‘A wildly inventive dystopian adventure … Both a hell of a ride and a revealing thought experiment about our place in the natural world.’
Dan Kois, Slate
‘The Animals in That Country is an uncanny book, in no small part because it was released in March and has a pandemic is at its centre … McKay’s book is madcap and poetic by turns; concerned about exactly what constitutes the relationships between humans and animals, and how we see each other and interact in this world we share.’
Fiona Wright, The Guardian
‘This book changed the way I look at the relationship between humans and animals, and it has one of the most wonderful dingo protagonists in Sue.’
Krissy Kneen, Broadsheet
‘Bold and strikingly inventive.’
Gemma Nisbet, The Weekend West Australian
‘The Animals in That Country is not a philosophical or moral tale. An experiment, rather than a lecture, the book invites readers to reflect on the fact that we belong to Mother Nature, instead of the other way around. And we are not her only child … A wildly imaginative and adventurous story that challenges the boundaries of both our language and our empathy for other creature surviving, living and thriving in this world.’
Christine Sun, Upper Yarra Mail
‘McKay does not offer us anthropomorphised cartoons, but a vocabulary formed by scent and breath … As the novel progresses, and more animals are introduced, it becomes impossible not to believe in McKay’s creative choices. In the arrangement and the rhythms and the personalities of each animal she translates, it is obvious McKay withheld nothing … McKay has not written a white lie about how lovely it would be to speak with a dog. Instead, she has asked that necessary, and uncomfortable question: Do we really want to know what the rest of the planet thinks of us?’
Necessary Fiction
