The Memory of Animals

Humans are useless at learning from their mistakes. We just have to keep making new plans.

When Neffy wakes up from an uneasy sleep in a hospital bed, nothing is as it should be. There is no food, and nobody to tend to her. The city streets outside her window have fallen silent. She doesn’t know it yet, but a debilitating new virus is sweeping the globe, and the world will never be the same again.

Feverish, confused, and wary of the strangers trapped inside with her, Neffy finds solace in her own memories of the past – even the memories of the mistakes that led her here.

But as the days turn into weeks, it is clear that Neffy will have to make a choice. How do you choose between a past that has already disappeared forever, and a future you can't begin to imagine?

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) -- Anthony Cummings ― 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

About the Author

Claire Fuller was born in Oxfordshire, England, in 1967. She gained a degree in sculpture from Winchester School of Art, but went on to have a long career in marketing and didn't start writing until she was forty. She has written four previous novels: Unsettled Ground, which in 2021 won the Costa Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize, Swimming Lessons, which was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award, and Bitter Orange. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Winchester and lives in Hampshire with her husband.