Only the Animals

July 13, 2015
By appropriating history, mythology, folklore, and even astrology, Dovey (Blood Kin) finds impressive depth and complexity in the souls of an array of animals. Each of her 10 stories has a resonant historical setting, opens with a relevant quotation or two, and gains additional context by citing noted authors who have also written about the species. In “Red Peter’s Little Lady,” set in Germany in 1917, the title chimpanzee, who is quickly adopting human traits, sends a series of courtship letters to his arranged partner Hazel, through her human caretaker. “Plautus: A Memoir of My Days on Earth and Last Days in Space,” written from outer space in 1968, imagines a tortoise of advanced age sent into space by the Soviets after a colorful life as the pet of both George Orwell and Virginia Woolf. A black bear, a brown bear, and a witch are at the center of “Telling Fairytales,” set in 1992 during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Other stories focus on a camel, a cat (belonging to Colette), a dog, a mussel, an elephant (killed not by poachers but by desperate villagers), a dolphin (writing a letter to Sylvia Plath), and a parrot. Dovey finds humanity in her diverse protagonists, and the stories are full of surprises, warmth, and insight. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, Wylie Agency.

Starred review from July 15, 2015
Wonderfully weird and profoundly witty, Australian writer Dovey (Blood Kin, 2008) recounts a history of 20th-century human catastrophe in 10 short stories, each told by an animal who was there. In "Pigeons, a Pony, the Tomcat, and I," a house cat-inadvertently separated from her beloved bohemian owner-prowls the trenches of the western front, giving comfort to the soldiers and recounting adventures from better days. "Hundstage," one of the eerier tales in the bunch, follows Himmler's dog, exiled in the Polish forest. In war-ravaged Mozambique, twin elephants come of age listening to tales of their ancestors. Not every story is so grim, however, and while all of them are dark, some are tragically hilarious, brilliant in their absurdity. In one, a Kerouac-ian mussel seeks adventure and meaning on the hull of a ship. In another, a Russian tortoise escapes from its hermit owner, is adopted by Leo Tolstoy's daughter, becomes the pet of Virginia Woolf in London (in a section called "A Terrarium of One's Own"), and ultimately returns to the motherland, where she's launched into orbit as part of the Soviet Space Program. A military dolphin, sent by the U.S. Navy to fight enemy divers in Iraq, writes posthumous letters to Sylvia Plath. In the hands of another writer, this would all be hopelessly twee. The inner monologues of animals, all of them doomed by human tragedy, is high-risk terrain: too earnest and it's sentimental, too moralistic and it's preachy, too clownish and it's a cartoon. But Dovey's stories, at once charming and haunting, are something else altogether. "Absorbing" is not quite the right word for them-their poetic oddness keeps them at arm's length-but they are intoxicating nonetheless. As unsettling as they are beautiful, these quietly wise stories wedge themselves into your mind-and stay there.

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Starred review from July 1, 2015

Named an artist to watch by the Wall Street Journal for her debut novel, Blood Kin, Australian storyteller Dovey fulfills her promise with this standout collection of 12 interconnected stories, all told by animals whose souls, after a noteworthy death, are resting in heavenly constellations. In chronological order, starting with a camel in 1892 in Australia, each animal's tale covers brutal world events with an intelligent, distinctive voice. Dovey's unforgettable narrators provide social commentary while struggling to find some meaning in both the beauty and sadness of death. In "Pigeons, a Pony, the Tomcat and I," Colette's cat narrates, talking at length with a tomcat, keeping the soldiers company, ridding the trenches of rats, and befriending a pony who drags stretchers of the wounded, all under the whine and thunder of a German artillery barrage. "I, Elephant," is a sad commentary from an elephant in Mozambique 1987 and the starving families who need the elephant for food. The final story, "Psittacophile," is about a parrot named Barnes searching for peace and quiet in the unrest of 2006 Lebanon. VERDICT Dovey succeeds in providing original bittersweet tales with the hard-edged truths of history. An essential collection, enthusiastically recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 3/9/15.]--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Palisade, CO

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2015

Published in 15 countries, Dovey's debut novel, Blood Kin, showed how quickly our humanity cracks in time of stress. It was short-listed for the Dylan Thomas Award and led to Dovey's selection as one of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 honorees. The ten stories in her new work, winner of a 2014 Readings New Australian Writing Award, consider human violence from the perspective of animals, among them Colette's cat, wandering the trenches, and a dolphin dispatched to Iraq by the U.S. Navy.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2015

Named an artist to watch by the Wall Street Journal for her debut novel, Blood Kin, Australian storyteller Dovey fulfills her promise with this standout collection of 12 interconnected stories, all told by animals whose souls, after a noteworthy death, are resting in heavenly constellations. In chronological order, starting with a camel in 1892 in Australia, each animal's tale covers brutal world events with an intelligent, distinctive voice. Dovey's unforgettable narrators provide social commentary while struggling to find some meaning in both the beauty and sadness of death. In "Pigeons, a Pony, the Tomcat and I," Colette's cat narrates, talking at length with a tomcat, keeping the soldiers company, ridding the trenches of rats, and befriending a pony who drags stretchers of the wounded, all under the whine and thunder of a German artillery barrage. "I, Elephant," is a sad commentary from an elephant in Mozambique 1987 and the starving families who need the elephant for food. The final story, "Psittacophile," is about a parrot named Barnes searching for peace and quiet in the unrest of 2006 Lebanon. VERDICT Dovey succeeds in providing original bittersweet tales with the hard-edged truths of history. An essential collection, enthusiastically recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 3/9/15.]--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Palisade, CO

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.