Animal Person

The highly anticipated follow-up to Alexander MacLeod's critically acclaimed debut, Animal Person is a wry and perfectly-observed collection of short stories about intimacy, family and the struggle to connectAnimal Person is a collection of startling juxtapositions. Criminals and bystanders, siblings and strangers, infants, adolescents, young parents, and the elderly, mammals, reptiles and fish: unexpected encounters occur and every meeting is an opportunity for recognition or rejection.An empty-nest couple, separated after years of coexisting, find themselves pulled into the dreams of their silent, gazing rabbit; a mysterious passenger in search of his missing suitcase roams through the caverns of a 1970s LA airport; a piano recital goes wildly astray; and a great-aunt refuses to apologise as she struggles to find a place for everything in the tight space of her senior's apartment. In the adjoining motel room, a serial killer plans his next move; and a petty argument between two sisters is interrupted by an unexpected visitor.The eight stories in Animal Person are filled with wonder and yearning as MacLeod captures the fleeting intensities that shape all of our lives. MacLeod is a master of the short story form, and this is a collection that beats with raw emotion and shimmers with the complexity of our shared human experience.'Exquisite...expertly paced and finely observed' New York Times'Excellent... The eight stories, composed in crystalline prose, glimmer and gleam with yearning and loss' Eithne Farry, Daily Mail'Tender, funny and ever-surprising' Lynn Coady

The eight stories in Alexander MacLeod's excellent second collection, composed in crystalline prose, glimmer and gleam with yearning and loss, as strange longings overwhelm his finely-drawn characters., Exquisite., Mesmerising... MacLeod...explore[s] the absurdities and dislocations of twenty-first-century life., Brilliantly unsettling., A five-star book. I loved it. Eight short stories, each one satisfying and complete... They all have a kind of yearning, a voice that is intimate, often troubled, but each shines a light on relationships good and bad.

Alexander MacLeod was born in Inverness, Cape Breton in Canada. His first collection, Light Lifting, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and the Commonwealth Book Prize, and won an Atlantic Book Award. In 2019, he won an O Henry Prize for his short story, 'Lagomorph', originally published in Granta, and the first story in Animal Person. MacLeod lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and teaches at Saint Mary's University in Halifax.