The Memory of Animals
From the Costa Novel Award-winning author of Unsettled Ground
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- £7.99
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
'A stunning piece of speculative fiction' The i
'A haunting novel about love, survival and everything in between ... one to get excited about' Stylist, Best Modern Dystopia
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But she isn't here, no one is here. And I have a terror of being alone, in this building, in London, in the world.
Neffy is a young woman running away from grief and guilt, and the one big mistake that has derailed her career. When a debilitating new virus sweeps across the globe, volunteering in a vaccine trial offers her a way to make up for her past. But then, the virus mutates, and the future she had dreamed for herself is gone.
As the London streets outside the medical unit fall silent, and food begins to run out, Neffy must decide where safety lies. Might she find solace by revisiting her own heady memories of the past? Can she trust the strangers trapped inside with her - despite her growing suspicions? Or is her best chance of a future to be found in the terrifyingly unknown world outside?
Haunting and compelling, The Memory of Animals is a novel about freedom and captivity, survival and sacrifice, and what we cling to when everything else has been taken away, from the Costa Award-winning, Women's Prize-shortlisted author of Unsettled Ground.
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'Unsettling, moving and thoughtful, with horror lurking at the edges, this is a subtle, elegant novel. Claire Fuller is a huge talent' Lucy Atkins, author of Magpie Lane
'Compulsive and thoroughly convincing. Terrific!' Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fuller (Unsettled Ground) crafts a haunting novel of second chances set in a near-future pandemic. Twenty-something Neffy, still grieving the loss of her father and embarrassed by the crumbling of her marine biology career after a professional misstep, signs up as a vaccine test subject during the early days of the pandemic. While Neffy and her fellow volunteers are isolated in a London hospital as they undergo treatment, the virus, nicknamed "Dropsy," develops a new and deadly variant, which causes sudden memory loss before certain death. Neffy, who may have developed immunity, is identified as the group's best hope for the future, but after fellow test subject Leon introduces her to a new technology called Revisiting, which allows her to relive moments from her past, she becomes increasingly drawn to the treatment. Fuller's intricately structured narrative makes great use of the Revisiting conceit, allowing Neffy's history—including her love for an octopus she once cared for at an aquarium—to wrap itself around an increasingly nightmarish present, as Neffy uncovers secrets about the virus's progression that other volunteers have been keeping from her. The entwined pain and pleasure of memory is at the heart of Neffy's story, as is the hard work of establishing trust and finding forgiveness, particularly for oneself. This is a pandemic novel, yes, but one that radically transcends the label.
