Cheltenham PABC: The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay (296 pages)

As voted on in the September session, in January (for the 1 year anniversary of the book club!) we will read The Animals in That Country by Laura Jane mcKay.

As also discussed in September - there will be a nominal fee of £2 for each session from January 2025 onwards. This is to contribute to the cost of hosting the group on Meetup.com. We will transition away from using Facebook at this point.

The expectation is that you will buy, borrow, or stream the book and read or listen ahead of the session, and then we will discuss it together. This particular book is available 'free' as an audiobook via Spotify, if you have an existing subscription.

You do not have to have finished the whole thing to attend, as long as you don't mind spoilers. :)

How to find us:
I have booked a table for us at The Swan under my name (Devon) - the bar staff will be able to direct you to it.
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Book description:

"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."