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Title details for The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel - Available

The Last Animal

A Novel

by Ramona Ausubel
Natasha Soudek
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER
“Whip-smart and compulsively readable. . . both a wildly entertaining adventure story and a meditation on what it means to love your children—fiercely and imperfectly.”—Oprah Daily

“Springs alive to explore questions that stump scientists and families, problems of the head and the heart.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post
“A full-hearted portrait of sisterhood, family and the ways we process grief. Charming, wry, and original.” —People
TWO SISTERS, ONE MOM, AND ONE WOOLLY SECRET.
Teenage sisters Eve and Vera never imagined their summer vacation would be spent in the Arctic, tagging along on their mother’s scientific expedition. But there’s a lot about their lives lately that hasn’t been going as planned, and truth be told, their single mother might not be so happy either.
Now in Siberia with a bunch of serious biologists, Eve and Vera are just bored enough to cause trouble. Fooling around in the permafrost, they accidentally discover a perfectly preserved, four-thousand-year-old baby mammoth, and things finally start to get interesting. The discovery sets off a surprising chain of events, leading mother and daughters to go rogue, pinging from the slopes of Siberia to the shores of Iceland to an exotic animal farm in Italy, and resulting in the birth of a creature that could change the world—or at least this family.
The Last Animal takes readers on a wild, entertaining, and refreshingly different kind of journey, one that explores the possibilities and perils of the human imagination on a changing planet, what it’s like to be a woman in a field dominated by men, and how a wondrous discovery can best be enjoyed with family. Even teenagers.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 18, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593671795
      • File size: 281327 KB
      • Duration: 09:46:05

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from January 16, 2023
      The Ice Age meets the Anthropocene in this gem from Ausubel (Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty), centered on a scientist’s improbable attempt to revive an extinct species. A research trip brings Jane, a recently widowed graduate student, to the permafrost of Siberia, along with her two daughters, Eve, 15, and Vera, 12. Since their father died, Jane has thrown herself into work, and the girls would rather be anywhere than Siberia. Then the miraculous discovery of a baby mammoth preserved in ice brings them together. Back home in San Francisco, Jane shares her discovery with Helen, a glamorous amateur zookeeper who lives with zebras and giraffes on her husband’s estate on Lake Como. Soon, Jane and Helen hatch a plan to impregnate Helen’s pet elephant with a genetically modified embryo based on the baby mammoth’s DNA. Supporting players include a group of beardy professor-scientists in zip-off cargo pants who believe resurrecting the planet’s long-lost megafauna will heal the misdeeds of generations, and an Icelandic boy toy who catalyzes a perfectly reckless moment of teenage rebellion for Eve. Ausubel is at her best when exploring the ties that bind, especially in a family flung into unprecedented circumstances. In charting the parallel worlds of grief, scientific devotion, and adolescence, Ausubel comes up with a seamless global caper that brims with compassion and makes the reader glad to be alive. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow and Nesbit Assoc.

    • Library Journal

      June 10, 2024

      After the death of their father, teenagers Vera and Eve are uprooted to Siberia by their mother, Jane. Jane is part of a team of scientists on the hunt for DNA to bring back the wooly mammoth in the hopes of helping the climate crisis. When Vera and Eve stumble upon a perfectly preserved four-thousand-year-old baby mammoth, they set off a chain of events that impacts their mother's career and destabilizes their future. Ausubel (Awayland) creates a moving and complicated examination of grief and familial relations, combining relationship fiction and sci-fi. At its center, this story is about family and womanhood, with themes of coming-of-age, balancing motherhood and career, and the sexism women face in the workplace, particularly in science. Narrator Natasha Soudek gives distinct voices to the trio of women, placing listeners among the chaos and growing pains of the family. One might want to turn up the speed, as the narration is on the slower side. VERDICT For fans of character-centered stories, particularly those focusing on women's familial relations. Share with those who enjoyed Bonnie Garmus's Lessons in Chemistry or Tea Cooper's The Fossil Hunter.--Meghan Bouffard

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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