May I Recommend: The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel
A favorite from last year + a giveaway!
Welcome to May I Recommend. A new series where I recommend a book I love in a really fun and relatable way. Think: mood boards, favorite quotes, playlists, and similar TV/movie/book vibes. Consider it a heartfelt recommendation from me to you.
I have an extra special edition of May I Recommend for you today, readers. One of my favorite books from 2023, The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel (which not nearly enough people were talking about, in my opinion), is out in paperback this week. I've teamed up with my friends at Riverhead Books to give away one copy to a lucky reader!
I first encountered Ausubel's work in 2018 when I read her collection of short stories, Awayland. Within a few pages, I knew she would be added to my favorite authors' list. Her writing is dreamy; it sometimes feels like you are in a fairy tale. It's whimsical, and it's tender.
Since then, I've read two more of her novels: Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty and her most recent novel, The Last Animal, which hit shelves last summer. I loved it. I immediately put it in my husband's hands and talked it up to everyone I know.
So, if you haven't read it yet, read on for my thoughts, and be sure to enter the giveaway to win your own copy!
How to enter the giveaway:
🐘 Like this post + leave a comment sharing a favorite author you've discovered lately
🐘 For a bonus entry, restack this post
🐘 For another bonus entry, share this post to your Instagram stories (be sure to tag me @michellereadsbooks!)
To enter, you must be 18+ and live in the US. The giveaway will close on Friday, March 29, at 11:59 p.m., and the winner will be contacted shortly after in the comments.
The gist
Jane is a scientist working on a team of men looking to "de-extinct" the wooly mammoth. She's been sent to Siberia to hunt for ancient DNA, and her two teenage daughters, Eve and Vera, are tagging along with her. As with most teenagers, they are bored enough to cause trouble. Eve is the older sister, sassy and willing to stand up for her mom against the male scientists who often relegate Jane to administrative duties. Vera is the younger sister, content to watch reality TV and bake cakes.
Eve and Vera, while out exploring one day, discover a four-thousand-year-old baby mammoth perfectly preserved in the ice. Jane decides to go rogue since the male scientists will absolutely try to take this discovery as their own and take the baby mammoth to an exotic animal farm in Italy with her two daughters. There, a series of events unfold as these three women care for this baby mammoth and grapple with their grief over a dead husband/father, their place in the world as women, and their relationship with each other.
The thoughts
What a brilliant, tender, and whimsical take on climate change! I read this novel in August, and I'm still regularly thinking about it and recommending it to fellow readers.
Ausubel's writing shines in this novel, which is, at times, tender and funny. The novel spans many locations, from Siberia to California to Iceland to Italy, which I really enjoyed.
But my favorite part of this novel was the exploration of the mother-daughter relationship between Jane, Eve, and Vera. The three of them are afloat in a sea of grief after their husband/father dies in a car accident in Italy. They have a hole in their family they are trying to mend. They argue. They care for each other. They worry about each other. They make rash decisions (there are some wild side plots I don't want to spoil!). But in the end, they are a family that loves one another. And they welcome Pearl, the baby mammoth, into the fold as she struggles to find her place in the world without a family.
Jane also experiences a lot of sexism in her workplace. Though I hated that she had to experience that, the dynamics of a woman working in science were really interesting.
The vibe
It's a whimsical take on climate change that feels like a Wes Anderson movie. But Ausbel's sharp and clever writing made this mother-daughter story stand out to me. It's tender, funny, and so sweet.
Readers of Anne Tyler's quiet family dramas, Katherine Heiny's quirky family dramas, and fans of Wes Anderson's eclectic style will enjoy this one. And add a dash of Jurassic Park because, after all, they are resurrecting an animal from thousands of years old DNA.
The visuals
Who doesn’t love a good book mood board?
Quotes I loved
Thousands of years of evolution and humans had landed here, each person in front of a blue screen trying to reduce the number in her inbox. Salutations and politeness while the earth fizzled underneath.
Vera was afraid that she loved steadiness and she loved Eve and her mother and that those things were not compatible.
They had done the hard, immediate work of shock and grief so deep they drowned and the awful, unfair work of insurance paperwork and canceling mail and credit cards and magazine subscriptions. Then they had done the work of grief as tide, receding until the ground seemed almost dry, then rushing back in, foamy and cold. Now they were in the forever part, the endless low-level blue that had become a presence more than an absence. It was the ocean they swam in or the ocean that sloshed.
She wanted a life with a shallow swing to it, a life that did not peak and decline, peak and decline.
Are you going to read this one? I’d love to know! And I’d love to know what you think if you do.
‘Til next time,
PS: If you enjoyed this post, here are a few others you might love as well.
Thanks for recommending The Last Animal, it sounds like a great story! I really enjoyed The Frozen River and want to explore Ariel Lawhon’s backlist.
This sounds like something my husband might like! I love that we're getting more and more novels that are fiction but have climate themes. Sarah Grunder Ruiz is a new to me author and I hope to read her backlist soon.