The Animals in That Country: winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award
チクングニアウイルスの経験に触発された、パンデミックによって引き起こされた異種間のコミュニケーションについての思弁小説小説。
作品情報
チクングニアウイルスの経験に触発された、パンデミックによって引き起こされた異種間のコミュニケーションについての思弁小説小説。
チクングニアウイルスの経験に触発された、パンデミックによって引き起こされた異種間のコミュニケーションについての思弁小説小説。
書籍情報
- 出版社
- Scribe Publications
- 発売日
- 2020-09-10
- ページ数
- 288ページ
- 言語
- 英語
- サイズ
- 13.5 x 2.41 x 21.6 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781912854523
- ISBN-10
- 191285452X
- 価格
- 1438 JPY
- カテゴリ
- 洋書/Science Fiction & Fantasy/Science Fiction
WINNER OF THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR Out on the road, no one speaks, everything talks. Hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, and allergic to bullshit, Jean is not your usual grandma. She’s never been good at getting on with other humans, apart from her beloved granddaughter, Kimberly. Instead, she surrounds herself with animals, working as a guide in an outback wildlife park. And although Jean talks to all her charges, she has a particular soft spot for a young dingo called Sue. As disturbing news arrives of a pandemic sweeping the country, Jean realises this is no ordinary flu: its chief symptom is that its victims begin to understand the language of animals ― first mammals, then birds and insects, too. As the flu progresses, the unstoppable voices become overwhelming, and many people begin to lose their minds, including Jean’s infected son, Lee. When he takes off with Kimberly, heading south, Jean feels the pull to follow her kin. Setting off on their trail, with Sue the dingo riding shotgun, they find themselves in a stark, strange world in which the animal apocalypse has only further isolated people from other species. Bold, exhilarating, and wholly original, The Animals in That Country asks what would happen, for better or worse, if we finally understood what animals were saying.
Laura Jean McKay is the author of The Animals in That Country (Scribe, 2020) ― winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Victorian Prize for Literature, and the ABIA Small Publishers Adult Book of the Year, and co-winner of the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Laura is also the author of Holiday in Cambodia (Black Inc., 2013). She was awarded the NZSA Waitangi Day Literary Honours in 2022.
レビュー
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The plot and language do not intrigue
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A good read with a very unique and timely theme. It certainly moved along. I liked the ending and the poignancy of it but that could have been protracted, was a bit abrupt.
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Enjoyed every word
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McKay’s story reveals the strangeness we live alongside every day in our mundane world, the degree to which we close out our senses in the service of normalcy, and the utter mystery at the heart of our relationships with animals. McKay’s flawed human characters are continually revealed to be both weak and brave, muddled and clear visioned, while the animals in the novel are complex and fully drawn. The escalating sense of loss throughout the story is brought to a haunting crescendo in an ending reminiscent of our deepest regrets. Beautifully crafted, this is a story for readers who have a love for and interest in the world of animals and the human struggle to find right relations with our non-human fellow travelers. Looking forward to more from Laura Jean McKay.
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I've read and enjoyed a lot of pandemic fiction, but this is a completely different take on the subject. The usual formula is a quick and widespread elimination of much of the human race, following which small bands of survivors get together to carry out survival strategies. In the real world - compare with the current Covid-19 pandemic, which did not exist when McKay wrote her novel - the death toll has never been so high, the structure of society and government has not collapsed, and everyone has some idea what is going on. McKay's novel is perhaps at its most realistic in its focus on the psychological effects and responses of people. I don't wish to spell out the details, because (although a dark tale) discovering them for yourself is one of this book's delights. As a final note, I take my hat off to Ms McKay for confining her story to a concise length (around 250 pages) instead of padding it out to make a blockbuster. I'm keeping my eyes open for this writer's future work.
関連する文学賞
- アーサー・C・クラーク賞 第35回（2021年） ・Winner