Praise for The Last Animal
A Finalist for the 2014 Orion Book Award for Fiction
"Human predicaments are complemented by the wild natural world in this excellent debut story collection from Chicago–based author Geni. The characters and events here are unusual and far–reaching, but Geni's careful craftsmanship renders them immediate and real. Each story is threaded with page–turning, deeply felt tension, yet each has also been planted with a seed of magic in varying stages of growth.. An entrancing collection, recommended even for those who generally shy away from short story." —Kirkus Reviews (Starred)
"The short stories in Geni's debut collection beautifully reveal how exposure to nature helps people in emotional pain to recover. In each well–researched piece, Geni vividly depicts the setting, as well as the animals or plants that play important roles…All ten stories here are wonderfully written, with precise language and a true compassion for the hardships of the characters. Highly recommended." —Library Journal (Starred)
"The Last Animal by Abby Geni is the rare short story collection that's as coherent and powerful as a well–constructed novel. It begs to be read straight through rather than sampled casually. Although each story stands on its own, as an ensemble, their brilliance becomes apparent… Geni's prose is clean and slightly dreamlike, in an intimate voice that lingers occasionally on glimmering sensory details…Reading The Last Animal is like glimpsing a distant, hauntingly familiar shore illuminated by the rotating beam of a lighthouse." —Shelf Awareness, (Starred)
"Geni's first book puts us on notice. Here is a fiction writer who perceives the many forms of consciousness at work on the planet. In shrewd, sure stories, Geni registers the life force of trees, deciphers the confusions of human emotions, and considers the mystery of our interactions with other species… Endangerment, disappearance, isolation, love adrift, the attempt to hold on to and define life—Geni illuminates each condition and effort with keen realism and empathetic imagination to wondrously disquieting effect." — Booklist
"I have known for a while that Abby Geni is a brilliant writer, and I'm happy that at last the world will find out. These are sharp, incisive, thoughtful, and utterly original stories, and I recommend this book with all my heart!" —Dan Chaon, National Book Award Finalist, author of Stay Awake and Await Your Reply
"Combining the cool precision of a naturalist with the heart of a born storyteller, Abby Geni catalogues an astounding array of characters whose lives have been undone by the mysterious departures and disappearances of loved ones. Instead of solving these mysteries, she plunges us deeper into them, and the results, like so many of the creatures in this book, are strange, haunting, and beautiful." —Jim Gavin, Middle Men
"Abby Geni is a sharpshooter, a tamer of wild animals, a clear–eyed wonder. The Last Animal is a phenomenally ambitious debut collection and announces Geni's many talents to the world with the volume of a herd of stampeding elephants. I loved this book, and you will, too." —Emma Straub
"Abby Geni's worlds exist at the boundary between desolation and abundance, civilization and nature, love and loneliness. It is as if everything and everyone in these beautiful stories is at least half wild." —Ramona Ausubel, A Guide to Being Born
"The Last Animal is a work of rare insight and beauty. Abby Geni's vision is expansive and haunting and wholly new, and she illuminates her characters' loneliness and longing in a way that will break your heart. This book is about love and animals and loss and the whole world; you must read it." —Karen E. Bender, A Town of Empty Rooms
"It's rare to find a single story that's both highly imaginative while also unflinchingly earnest, thrilling while also deeply moving and wise. With The Last Animal we get ten stories that fulfill this ambitious criteria, and an amazing collection that announces Abby Geni as a powerful and original new voice in fiction." —Alan Heathcock, Volt
The short stories in Geni's debut collection beautifully reveal how exposure to nature helps people in emotional pain to recover. In each well-researched piece, Geni vividly depicts the setting, as well as the animals or plants that play important roles. For example, in the title story, Delilah's experiences at an exotic Mexican beach allow her finally to make peace with the husband who deserted her years earlier. "In the Spirit Room" is set in the Natural History Museum in Washington, DC, where both Max and his mother are employed until she falls ill and passes away. After the funeral, Max decides to live at the museum and sleep in her workroom, the herbarium. By engrossing himself in her work, he is able to accept her death and move forward. VERDICT All ten stories here are wonderfully written, with precise language and a true compassion for the hardships of the characters. Highly recommended; readers will eagerly anticipate Geni's first novel.—Lisa Rohrbaugh, Leetonia Community P.L., OH
★ 2013-09-01
Human predicaments are complemented by the wild natural world in this excellent debut story collection from Chicago-based author Geni. The characters and events here are unusual and far-reaching, but Geni's careful craftsmanship renders them immediate and real. Each story is threaded with page-turning, deeply felt tension, yet each has also been planted with a seed of magic in varying stages of growth. In the collection's award-winning piece, "Captivity," the narrator works at the Chicago Aquarium, specializing in octopuses, which she feeds in-tank, wetsuit-clad, while haunted by her missing brother. In "Terror Birds," an ordinary family drama plays out with high stakes on an ostrich farm in the desert. "Isaiah on Sunday" and "In the Spirit Room" explore the loss of parents; "Landscaping" (the seed of magic here growing away from realism into striking lyricism) and "Fire Blight" show heartache from the parents' sides. Broken families are a theme, and the people in these stories experience the fallout with unflinching awareness. Likewise, Geni is not afraid to make readers sit with an uncomfortable situation or watch characters struggle with difficult decisions. "Dharma at the Gate" follows a teenage girl and her dog as she contemplates a relationship that's holding her back; readers will ache for her freedom. "The Girls of Apache Bryn Mawr" has an anonymous narrator--the protagonists are bunked together in a camp cabin the summer their counselor disappears. "The Last Animal" and "Silence" center on older characters looking for a kind of closure, and both have a quieter tension. An entrancing collection, recommended even for those who generally shy away from short story.
