Hartnett’s whimsical storytelling casts a spell. Set against the backdrop of a small town in the throes of a very real opioid crisis, Unlikely Animals is a tragicomic novel about familial expectations, imperfect friendships, and the. While the jarring ending is hard to swallow, Hartnett’s clever prose and brisk pacing will carry readers through. Others lend an amusing point of view to the proceedings (“one of the perks of being dead, omniscience within town limits,” one of them says). The ghosts of various dead townspeople weigh in throughout, such as “real-life Doctor Doolittle” Baynes, whom Clive reveres and who now tells Clive what to do. With the police unconcerned over Crystal’s disappearance, Emma decides to work with Clive to solve the mystery. Natural-born healer Emma Starling once had big plans for her life, but she’s lost her way. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. A lost young woman returns to small-town New Hampshire under the strangest of circumstances in this one-of-a-kind novel of life, death, and whatever comes after from the acclaimed author of Rabbit Cake. You’ll fall in love with the offbeat cast of characters (both Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. When Emma becomes a substitute teacher for fifth graders, she’s drawn back into all the drama of her hometown, including her brother Auggie’s opioid addiction and her mother Ingrid’s unhappiness. Unlikely Animals: A Novel by Annie Hartnett, Hardcover Barnes & Noble This tragicomic novel is heartfelt, touching, and delightfully quirky. Clive was forced to retire from his professorship due to his hallucinations of animals and is now obsessed with finding Emma’s high school best friend Crystal Nash, who has been missing for several months. Emma Starling, 22, drops out of medical school to help care for her father, Clive, who is suffering from a rare brain disease.

Hartnett ( Rabbit Cake) delivers a quirky ghost story set in present-day Upper Valley, N.H., inspired by the legacy of naturalist Ernest Harold Baynes.

Unlikely animals a novel