Synopses & Reviews
Now that her brilliant daughter is off at college, buttoned-up Maeve Cosgrove loves her job at her quiet Maine public library more than anything. But when a teenager accuses Maeve — Maeve — of spying on her romantic escapades in the mezzanine bathroom, she winds up laid off and humiliated. While Maeve attempts to clear her name, her favorite author, Harrison Riddles, finally responds to her invitation to speak at the library. Riddles announces a plan to write a novel about another young library patron, a Sudanese refugee, and enlists Maeve's help in convincing him to participate. A scheme to get her job back draws Maeve further into Riddles's universe--where shocking questions about sex, morality, and the purpose of literature threaten to upend her orderly life.
A writer of "savage compassion" (Salvatore Scibona, author of The Volunteer), Sarah Braunstein constructs a shrewd, page-turning caper that explores one woman's search for agency and ultimate reckoning with the kind of animal she is.
Review
“Full of ideas, plot, verve, interesting scenes, and good writing, but just a little too full. A writer to watch.” Kirkus Reviews
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“Braunstein makes Maeve's emotions palpable as she attempts to clear her name and deal with her empty nester woes. [Bad Animals] has plenty of charm." Publishers Weekly
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"Exploring themes of appropriation, obsession, and control, Braunstein's tangled novel will leave readers unsettled." Booklist
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“Wise, wily, intriguing, and so much fun, Bad Animals mesmerized me. I did not want it to end. This is Braunstein at her very best.” Lily King, author of Writers & Lovers
About the Author
Sarah Braunstein is the author of The Sweet Relief of Missing Children. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker and the Harvard Review. The recipient of a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 prize, she lives in Portland, Maine, and teaches at Colby College.