The Animals: A Novel

by Christian Kiefer

Overview

For fans of Denis Johnson and Peter Matthiessen, a literary thriller from one of the most exciting new voices in American fiction.

Bill Reed manages a wildlife sanctuary in rural Idaho, caring for injured animals—raptors, a wolf, and his beloved bear, Majer, among them—that are unable to survive in the wild. Seemingly rid of his troubled past, Bill hopes to marry the local veterinarian and live a quiet life together, the promise of which is threatened when a childhood friend is released from prison. Suddenly forced to confront the secrets of his criminal youth, Bill battles fiercely to preserve the shelter that protects these wounded animals and to keep hidden his turbulent, even dangerous, history. Alternating between past and present, Christian Kiefer contrasts the wreckage of Bill’s crime-ridden years in Reno, Nevada, with the elusive promise of a peaceful future. In finely sculpted prose imaginatively at odds with the harsh, volatile world Kiefer evokes, The Animals builds powerfully toward the revelation of Bill’s defining betrayal—and the drastic lengths Bill goes to in order to escape the consequences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780871408839
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	03/23/2015
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Christian Kiefer has a PhD in American literature from the University of California–Davis and directs the low-residency MFA at Ashland University. The author of The Animals and The Infinite Tides, he lives with his family in Placer County, California.

Editorial Reviews

01/26/2015
Kiefer, author of The Infinite Tides, returns with a mesmerizing literary thriller about Bill Reed, a lost soul who winds up in a remote corner of Idaho, operating a wildlife sanctuary filled with animals who cannot take care of themselves after suffering at the hands of humans. The book opens in 1996, introducing us to Reed and some of his creatures, including a gentle giant of a bear named Majer. Reed lives quietly: he cares for his animals and courts local veterinarian Grace. But Reed’s past in Reno, Nev., comes back with his friend Rick, who shows up in Idaho, just released from a long stretch in prison. Rick has come to avenge the aftermath of a crime that involved the two of them. Reed’s job at the refuge is a form of penance, but there’s a thrilling story line that builds in momentum to an inevitable denouement, paced by prose that’s poetic without ever succumbing to preciousness. This is a compelling, thoughtful novel. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"The deep, dense prose Kiefer uses makes you slow down and take it all in. Word by word and sentence by sentence, Kiefer reels the reader into his world."

The Life Sentence - Heather Bobula

"Kiefer… is a gifted stylist unafraid of writing on the edge of sentiment…. Beautifully written… The Animals moves at a heart-quickening pace, and the counterpointed stories frequently intersect and gather a fierce momentum… The book is not just a galloping great read; it’s a violent, tender, terrifying, genuine work of art."

San Francisco Chronicle - Porter Shreve

"Stretched out on a sun-warmed rock on the most beautiful river I know, on one of the last warm days high in the Sierras, a beer cooling in the water, a galley of Christian Kiefer’s The Animals in my hands six months before the book hits the shelves, no one around to hear me over the roaring water: my exclamations of awe and jealousy at each moment of masterful craftsmanship those pages contain."

Barnes & Noble Review - Josh Weil

★ 2015-01-08
In Kiefer's (The Infinite Tides, 2012) dark, lyrical novel, a man learns that no matter how hard he may try to atone for his sins, he can't outrun his violent past or his most painful mistakes.Bill Reed seems like a quiet loner with a difficult but satisfying life: running a sanctuary for wounded animals, dating the local veterinarian, worrying about preparing for the harsh Idaho winter. Though he sometimes has to make the tough decision to put down gravely injured animals, he also finds meaning and solace in his relationships with the animals he cares for, most particularly the blind grizzly Majer. But Bill has a secret past that reawakens when his childhood friend is released from prison, and he finds it impossible to hide from the person he used to be and the things he did as that person. Eloquent and shattering, this novel explores, in gritty detail, how penance sometimes does not lead to redemption, a modern take on the story of Eden. Kiefer is a master wordsmith, and his dense and beautiful language intensifies the pain and isolation of the main character. He moves smoothly from past to present, from third-person narration to second-person, including and entangling the reader in the novel's heartbreak. The connection forged between Bill and Majer, which offers an emotional climax more stirring than the final action scenes, is both warmly compassionate and deeply, deeply tragic. This is a novel about duality: the loyalty and betrayal of friendship; the freedom and imprisonment of the spirit; the wild connection between human and animal; the goodness and horror that live in each of us. Devastatingly beautiful. This novel embodies why we write and why we read.

Kirkus Reviews

"Laughter will rush through tears for readers of this American masterpiece."

Lydia Netzer

"Kiefer weaves loyalty, self-destruction, and survival into a story that’s equal doses of raging suspense and thought-provoking gray areas. A great choice for mystery and literary-fiction book groups."

Booklist - Christine Tran

"I couldn’t read the novel fast enough, yet there were passages that I made myself read over and over again. You must read what is sure to be on many ‘Best of’ lists for 2015."

Bookreporter.com - Joe Hartlaub

"A rare young stylist, with an abundance of vivid, engrossing stories in his brain; Christian Kiefer is a genuine find."

Richard Ford

"An unusual and compelling amalgam of noir classic. . . . This tough-minded thriller weaves a hot red thread through an introspective, sensuous landscape, a meditation on instinct, memory and the nature of friendship between species and between men."

Janet Fitch