"Over the course of a single night in an authoritarian Britain in 2052, a homeless man named Cuthbert Handley sets out on an astonishing quest: to release the animals of the London Zoo."
Night of the Animals is by turns visionary, ironic, satirical and deeply remorseful. The felled woodlands, the erased species, a new Great Extinction—all happen within one long lifetime. It’s a rich addition to the literature of lament, viewed with sympathy and longing.
...[a] wonderful doorstop of a book ... Broun packs his novel with futuristic invention, Chablis-dry humor and a thick, dreamy nostalgia for the midsummer mayhem of Puck and his retinue ... a story as wildly moving and singular as an animal’s eyes in the dark.
The book’s plot indeed dovetails eerily with some recent events — Brexit, terrorism — but in this smartly written dystopian novel, things are even worse than the headlines ... Broun’s debut will have readers cheering for Cuthbert even as they question the man’s sanity.
