Overview
For readers of Shark Heart and Hollow Kingdom, a funny, magical, and tender debut novel following a lonely, conflict-averse man whose sudden ability to understand animals sends him on a wild romp around NYC, and ultimately helps him discover his own voice.
Strolling through Central Park on a blind date with the hilarious, irrepressible Molly Bent, Henry Parsons is feeling hopeful for the first time in years… when a migratory warbler, the sweetest of little birds, tells him to f*** off.
A gentle soul, troubled enough by the unkindness of fellow humans, Henry tries to brush the moment aside as a hallucination. But soon he’s hearing voices everywhere: dogs mocking their owners, sparrows fat-shaming each other, police horses profiling attendees at a street fair — even a pontificating, misogynistic snake. The man who never speaks up for himself is now besieged by animals who do.
When (inevitably) he overhears three rats discussing a corpse in the New York subway, he lets it slip to Molly. She’s keen to investigate, and Henry’s desperate for a second date, so he follows her nervously into an abandoned tunnel under the West Fourth Street Station. There, sure enough, they find a body… and the murderers find them.
Cue the most terrifying week of this cautious man’s life. Inspiration and courage arrive, unexpectedly, from a pair of feuding betta fish and his neighbor’s yapping Pomeranian — the wisest character in the book.
Strolling through Central Park on a blind date with the hilarious, irrepressible Molly Bent, Henry Parsons is feeling hopeful for the first time in years… when a migratory warbler, the sweetest of little birds, tells him to f*** off.
A gentle soul, troubled enough by the unkindness of fellow humans, Henry tries to brush the moment aside as a hallucination. But soon he’s hearing voices everywhere: dogs mocking their owners, sparrows fat-shaming each other, police horses profiling attendees at a street fair — even a pontificating, misogynistic snake. The man who never speaks up for himself is now besieged by animals who do.
When (inevitably) he overhears three rats discussing a corpse in the New York subway, he lets it slip to Molly. She’s keen to investigate, and Henry’s desperate for a second date, so he follows her nervously into an abandoned tunnel under the West Fourth Street Station. There, sure enough, they find a body… and the murderers find them.
Cue the most terrifying week of this cautious man’s life. Inspiration and courage arrive, unexpectedly, from a pair of feuding betta fish and his neighbor’s yapping Pomeranian — the wisest character in the book.
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