Book Review: Animal People + Giveaway

The review is a part of Product Talk by Nuffnang

I have really been getting into my reading lately. In the past few months I have read a huge pile of books and I have reviewed most of them here on the blog. This week I received a book for the purpose of review. To tell you the truth, I hadn't heard of the author before or her previous novels, so I was going into this review completely blind. I had no idea what to expect. 

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The book was Animal People by Charlotte Wood. To be completely honest with you, it took me a while to get into the book. For the first two days I only read about 40 pages. You see, it follows the life of one person, Stephen Connolly, for a day. Yep, only one day. But you know what, after I got through those first 40 pages I could not put it down. I had to finish it. And I am still thinking about it now. I have even bought another of Charlottes' books today.

As I said before Animal People follows the life of Stephen Connolly for an almost 24hr period on a hot December day as he decides to break up with his girlfriend. At first you have no idea why he is breaking up with her at all. He has simply made this decision and is going with it. I found myself willing him to change his mind, I was really rooting for Fiona in the end, even though I really didn't know much about her. 

Stephens day really just goes from bad to worse and I kind of started to feel sorry for the poor guy but at the same time I didn't. I can't really explain it... I am still trying to wrap my head around some of the things in the book, but what I do know is that I really enjoyed reading it. As I said before I am still thinking about the characters now. And really for me that is a marker for a really good read. If I can't forget about it after I put it down then it's a winner in my book!

"Hilarious, tender and heartbreaking, Animal People is a portrait of urban life, a meditation on the conflicted nature of human-animal relationships, and a masterpiece of storytelling. "

And guess what?! I have one copy to give away to one lucky reader. Simply comment below telling me if you are an animal person and why/why not?

For additional entries feel free to tweet and share on facebook. (1 entry for each) 

Entries will close Monday 21st of November 2011 and the winners will be drawn via random.org on Tuesday 22nd of November and announced on the blog.