On Animals

Susan Orlean

Oct 2021 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“Magnificent.” —The New York Times * “Beguiling, observant, and howlingly funny.” —San Francisco Chronicle * “Spectacular.” —Star Tribune (Minneapolis) * “Full of astonishments.” —The Boston Globe

Susan Orlean—the beloved New Yorker staff writer hailed as “a national treasure” by The Washington Post and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Library Book—gathers a lifetime of musings, meditations, and in-depth profiles about animals.

“How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages,” writes Susan Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she’s been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals, she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career.

These stories consider a range of creatures—the household pets we dote on, the animals we raise to end up as meat on our plates, the creatures who could eat us for dinner, the various tamed and untamed animals we share our planet with who are central to human life. In her own backyard, Orlean discovers the delights of keeping chickens. In a different backyard, in New Jersey, she meets a woman who has twenty-three pet tigers—something none of her neighbors knew about until one of the tigers escapes. In Iceland, the world’s most famous whale resists the efforts to set him free; in Morocco, the world’s hardest-working donkeys find respite at a special clinic. We meet a show dog and a lost dog and a pigeon who knows exactly how to get home.

Equal parts delightful and profound, enriched by Orlean’s stylish prose and precise research, these stories celebrate the meaningful cross-species connections that grace our collective existence.

Ratings and reviews

I learned a whole lot of fascinating things about many different kinds of animals and their relationships with humans! Some stuff I sort of knew (like the training of USMC to utilize mules and other pack animals in mountainous terrains like Afghanistan), and pigeons not used in war like they were in The War To End All Wars, but where racing pigeons have sold for over $200,000. Then there's the history of chickens in the suburbs, a woman who had acres of tigers in New Jersey, the world of dog shows and proper breeding (as opposed to *puppy Mills*), regulations and stories regarding animals (even locusts and worms!) while filming movies/TV (organization Animal Humane). The writing style is easy and characteristic of her New Yorker articles but does, rarely, sanitize a bit. I requested and received a free review copy from Simon and Schuster Publishers via NetGalley. Thank you! Now I have to get a copy for Zelda with her farm!

About the author

Susan Orlean has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992. She is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including The Library Book, Rin Tin Tin, Saturday Night, and The Orchid Thief, which was made into the Academy Award–winning film Adaptation. She lives with her family and her animals in Los Angeles and may be reached at SusanOrlean.com and on Twitter @SusanOrlean.