Human, Animal

(Paperback)

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Since the death of his brother, dairy farmer George Calvert has been struggling to keep the family business afloat. His troubles only worsen when animal rights activists descend on his cowshed one morning to film social media content. The fallout is unprecedented, especially since George's youngest child appears to side with the activists. As the Calverts navigate the real-world consequences of going viral, a decades-old family secrets begins to surface - one that could change everything for them all. Human, Animal is an ode to the wild, an elegy for what we have lost and a realisation of the power in finding common ground.

Reviews

Seth Insua probes the spaces between black-and-white-thinking with immeasurable sensitivity. Insua holds a mirror up to the 'good' of animal rights campaigning, and the 'evil' of dairy farming, to show that the lines aren't so clear cut, and that life is much messier. Messy, also, is the conflict between traditional values and the advancement of modern technology, of trying to express one's queerness in such a hypermasculine setting. Human, Animal manages to explore all this, and the anxious convergence of the past, present and future, with staggering clarity. A truly impressive debut -- Joshua Jones, author of Local Fires
A beautiful, clever debut, written with such tenderness for its muddled, struggling cast. Seth Insua balances polarised worlds - the young and old, the urban and rural, the expected and forbidden - to create a novel so full of generosity and insight -- Abigail Dean, author of Girl A and Day One
Human, Animal is a formidable saga of British farming - spinning a moving tale of belonging, family, and land that brings country life into fierce reckoning with the modern world. As vital and sweeping as the countryside it enfolds us in -- Scott Preston, author of The Borrowed Hills
In his poignant, lyrical debut novel, Insua reminds us that - beneath our painted faces and constructed facades - we are all mere bones and flesh and beating hearts. Human, Animal is about remembering our shared humanity that has the potential to reunite us under one sun in this complex, ever-changing, yet beautiful world -- James Hodge, Attitude magazine
A searingly powerful novel, Human, Animal grapples with questions of identity, change and family, delivering a nuanced and moving story about the desire for connection and acceptance -- Lucy Ashe, author of Clara & Olivia