The Memory of Animals (2023) by Claire Fuller

 Book Review

The Memory of Animals (2023)

by Claire Fuller

   English author Claire Fuller has five novels under her belt and the kind of international recognition that is one step below the top tier (She won the 2021 Costa for best novel (RIP Costa Book Awards), and she won some even more obscure contests in 2015 for her debut, Our Endless Numbered Days, which sounds pretty interesting.  I think I read the Guardian review of The Memory of Animals and picked it up because of the theme (post-apocalyptic), the literary pedigree of the author and because it was available to check out immediately in the Libby library app for the Los Angeles Public Library.  

   The set up is dystopia 101:  Neffy, the protagonist/narrator, a somewhat feckless youngish woman who is banging her step brother and has recently had a spot of trouble with her job as an octopus handler at a London area aquarium, volunteers to be a test subject for what appears to be a post-COVID type virus that has just emerged.  After receiving the vaccine and the virus she falls unconscious and when she wakes up... you guessed it! Society has collapsed!

  Beyond that it's pretty clear that Fuller is more interested in the inner turmoil of Neffy than the implications of the collapse of society.   While Neffy and her cohorts remain barricaded inside the hospital there are a series of chapter length flashbacks that fill you in on Neffy and her issues.  When they finally get out into the world, it's essentially a coda to the (un)resolved personal issues of Neffy.