ALL YOUR STORY NEEDS®

This Animal Body

Frankie Conner, first-year graduate student at UC Berkeley, is finally getting her life together. After multiple failures and several false starts, she’s found her calling: become a neuroscientist, discover the cause of her depression and anxiety, and hopefully find a cure for herself and everyone like her.

But her first day of the program, Frankie meets a mysterious group of talking animals who claim to have an urgent message for her. The problem is, they’re not willing to share it. Not yet. Not until she’s ready.

While Frankie’s new friends may not have her highly evolved, state-of-the-art, exalted human brain, they do know things she doesn’t—poems, scientific facts, and what happened in the forgotten years before her adoption. Hearing what they have to say, she can’t dismiss her conversations with these animals as mere dreams; but she also can’t accept them as real. To prove she’s still sane, she begins to investigate her past and defies the professor who heads her lab by conducting a series of scientific experiments to test just how much animals understand—and are capable of communicating. Just when Frankie uncovers the truth, one of her animal friends shows up in her lab severely injured, and she has to make what feels like an impossible decision: betray the beings she’s fallen in love with or give up her dream of neuroscience, her last chance at success, and everything she thought she knew.

Author: Meredith Walters
Publication Date: April 16, 2024

 

BOOKSHOP
AMAZON
BARNES & NOBLE
IBOOKS

Categories: ,

Description

“Sublimely complex characters drive this story that promotes empathy for all earthly creatures.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Seamlessly blending elements of fabulism and fantasy with a focus on science and mental health, Walters’s story will appeal to readers interested in the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit, as well as our indelible connection to nature.”
—BookLife Reviews

“This Animal Body is an interesting book told from a viewpoint that will pique the interest of the avid magical realism fan.”
—Readers’ Favorite, 5-star review

“If you’ve ever wondered what the cockroach who narrowly escaped your boot is thinking, if you’ve ever imagined what it feels like to run like a wolf, if you’ve ever questioned who you are—This Animal Body is a tale for you. Creative and thought-provoking, it might change the ways you relate to all animals, both human and nonhuman.”
—Jenni Ogden, Sarton Women’s Book Award-winner, Nautilus Book Award–winner, and author of A Drop in the Ocean

“Walters touches all the bases in this multi-layered story of a young woman searching for her birth mother and finding a devoted family of forest creatures eager to be her guides and mentors. A beautifully written depiction of Love as the underpinning of all life!”
—Susan Crawford, bestselling author of The Pocket Wife

“A unique story, imaginative, beautifully written, with characters so real I kept forgetting I hadn’t met them in real life. Captivating from so many angles at once—a dramatic search for a birth mother, the plight of animals in a human world, the crush of depression on the human spirit, a searing choice between science and conscience. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Jude Berman, author of The Die

“Heartwarming, tender, and deeply insightful, This Animal Body is a compelling journey into the heart and soul of what it means to be human.”
—Jen Braaksma, author of Amaranth

“Walters’s creativity is boundless and leaves you full of wonder and joy at what is possible.”
—Nate Summers, author of Primal

About the Author

Growing up in Atlanta, Meredith Walters often wandered nearby forests looking for animals and magic and writing stories about what she found. After getting a BA in literature from UC Berkeley, she spent ten years trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. Her adventures included volunteering for a nonprofit in Mexico, getting an MBA, and working for a social enterprise startup. Her short story collection The Adventures of Little One was published in 2018. Eventually, she moved back East to be close to her human and non-human family. She now lives in Atlanta, working as a life/career coach helping others rediscover their lost magic and once again writing stories about what she finds on her wanders through the woods.

Related products

Title

Copyright 2022 SparkPoint Studio
Privacy Policy

Go to Top