The Memory of Animals

Critics Review

• Following her award-winning novel Unsettled Ground, Fuller has returned with a piece of stunning speculative fiction

  The i

• A haunting novel about love, survival and everything in between … one to get excited about

  Stylist, Best Modern Dystopia

• A thought-provoking and utterly compelling novel from a writer we always look forward to reading

  Glamour

• Haunting and unsettling, moving and thoughtful, with horror lurking at the edges, this is a subtle, elegant novel. Claire Fuller is a huge talent

  Lucy Atkins, author of Magpie Lane

• Claire Fuller is such an interesting and original writer and she has produced another literary page-turner … Compulsive and thoroughly convincing. Terrific!

  Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures

• Fuller is an excellent writer and she neatly conveys boredom as well as dread (no mean feat)

  Daily Mail

• Stunning … A page-turning, topical, edge-of-your-seat story that resonates with the reader on an emotional level, and leaves them thinking about it for a long time afterwards

  Louise Morrish, author of Operation Moonlight

• A gripping page-turner, this apocalyptic tale is given warmth and depth by the portrayal of Neffy, a young woman with a complicated past to which she returns to escape the horrors of the present

  Woman and Home

• A taut and atmospheric read, an exploration of captivity, sacrifice and survival in a post-apocalyptic world … Asks important, resonant questions of life in extremis … Fuller writes brilliantly … The superb ending ties everything together with a moving, tragic cohesiveness

  Irish Times

• A woman once undone by empathy now finds that it could be her salvation in Claire Fuller’s stunning postapocalyptic novel … Sobering and evocative, The Memory of Animals is a novel about who we choose to be when the lights go out

  Foreword

• Wonderful, sorrowful, haunting, tender, elegiac

  Barney Norris, author of The Undercurrent

• Claire Fuller is my favourite story-teller. I read The Memory of Animals in one sitting, swept up by the thriller-like pace and the sheer joy of reading a great story. Yet, in the book’s aftermath, I was haunted by Neffy’s fumbling humanity in the face of loss and fear, and how courage isn’t always obvious – even to those who find it. Fuller’s books come in at the eyes, but they settle right behind the heart.

  Melanie Finn, author of The Hare

• A riveting exploration of agency, allegiance and choice

  Marie Claire

• Fuller’s latest work is thought-provoking and unsettling, and somehow strikes a further warning note to a world already in crisis

  Irish Independent

• Claire Fuller is a fascinating writer, and The Memory of Animals is further evidence of her powers. Her story is one of survival, but her subject is humanity itself. With immense skill, she shines a light on the dark heart of our existence – the beauty and brutality of human behaviour. This is an unforgettable novel

  Kathleen MacMahon, author of Nothing But Blue Sky

• A story you’ll both recognize from our collective recent past, and a thrilling departure from our reality

  Good Housekeeping USA, The Best Books of 2023 so far

• Full of jeopardy and strangeness but also laced with Fuller’s trademark generosity and compassion. A startling and satisfying book

  Julie Myerson, author of Nonfiction

• Fuller excels in examining the everyday moments at the heart of a life … A memorable meditation on how the human struggle to survive in captivity is not so different than that of our animal kin

  Kirkus

• A haunting novel of second chances set in a near-future pandemic … Intricately structured … The entwined pain and pleasure of memory is at the heart of Neffy’s story, as is the hard work of establishing trust and finding forgiveness, particularly for oneself. This is a pandemic novel, yes, but one that radically transcends the label

  Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

• Brave, unflinching and beautiful

  Beth Underdown, author of The Witchfinder's Sister

• Claire Fuller strikes the perfect balance between beauty and melancholy

  Clare Mackintosh, author of Hostage

• The way she writes (with empathy but never sentimentality) moves my heart

  Elizabeth Day, author of Magpie

• A creeping tale of isolation and the dangerous allure of memory

  Liz Earle Wellbeing

• [A] post-Covid psychological thriller … takes faintly distubing turns through grimly familiar territory to suggest that what makes us heroic, or not, hinges on unexpected things

  Mail on Sunday

• Compelling … A riveting, don’t-miss account of what some may see as the reality to come; long-time Fuller readers will relish this completely engrossing story, which questions what we value most

  Library Journal

• Compelling … A timely read … Fuller is on strong form in evoking the terrors faced by those who are not just marginalised but entirely forgotten by society

  Daily Express

• There’s a haunted elegance to Fuller’s vision of a fallen world … Sensuous

  Lit Hub, 28 Novels You Need To Read This Summer