LAURA JEAN McKAY
WHEN THE WINNER OF THIS YEAR’S Arthur C Clarke Award, The Animals In That Country, was announced, award director Tom Hunter heralded the book as a “first contact novel, only the multiple alien species that humanity encounters have been sharing the Earth with us all along”. It details what happens when, due to a “zooflu” pandemic (the timing was coincidental), infected humans develop the ability to understand animals.
The description delighted first-time novelist Laura Jean McKay. “I’d never thought of
