This month, we looked at our shelves and put together a list of books we love about animals—from feline friends to ferocious beasts. This list features memoirs, fiction, natural history and picture books. We hope you find something here that you like, and rediscover the natural world and its inhabitants with us.
Ruth Vanita’s translation of Mahadevi Varma’s little known classic, ‘My Family,’ is the lyrical story of Varma’s chosen family—her animal companions. The delightful writing and charming illustrations paint the picture of an urban modernity permeated by nature.
Sunny cats, sad cats, grinning cats, bad cats, cats with scowls and cats with jowls, and more! Hand-bound with a silk screened cover, ‘I Like Cats’ by Anushka Ravishankar features a gallery of irresistible feline characters from some of the best-known tribal and folk artists of India. It is a delight for cat lovers, art lovers, and artsy cat lovers!
Here are India’s best-known beasts—the tiger, the elephant, the deer, the snake—rendered by a variety of folk and tribal artists, including Kanchana Arni and Gita Wolf from Tara Books. Each of their artistic traditions conceives of the beast in distinctive ways, as original in the imagining as it is in the rendering. Individually screen-printed on handmade paper, it is a wonderful introduction to Indian painting styles is an art and book lover’s dream.
In Sosuke Natsukawa’s novel, bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the secondhand bookshop he inherited from his beloved grandfather. Then, a talking cat named Tiger appears with an unusual request. The cat needs Rintaro’s help to save books that have been imprisoned, destroyed and unloved. Translated from Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai, this is an enthralling tale of books, first love, fantasy, and an unusual friendship with a talking cat.
By Peter Godfrey-Smith, ‘Other Minds’ is a bold new story of how nature became aware of itself. A story that largely occurs in the ocean where animals first appeared, it tracks the mind’s fitful development over millennia, exploring the incredible evolutionary journey of the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. By tracing the question of inner life back to its roots and comparing human beings with our most remarkable animal relatives, Godfrey-Smith casts crucial new light on the octopus mind—and on our own.
Translated from Swedish by Agnes Broomé, this book by Patrik Svensson combines a focussed study of the eel with personal memoir. An interest that begins with his late father’s obsession with eel-hunting, an exercise that shaped Svensson’s own adolescence, the mystery of the eel runs parallel to the mystery of his late father. ‘The Gospel of the Eels’ is not a science lesson, but the story of a lifetime fascination with something that refuses to be pinned down. Read a review by curator Nirica here!
The closest thing Mary Gaitskill has ever written to a memoir, this stunning book-length essay is the story of how Gaitskill rescued a stray cat in Italy and brought him to live with her in the US, where he went missing. As she explores the unexpected trauma of her loss, Gaitskill describes how she came to foster two siblings, Caesar and Natalia, two inner-city children who spent summers and holidays with Gaitskill and her husband. The joys and ultimate difficulties of this relationship lead to a searing examination of loss, love, safety and fear, and how our limited understandings brush against our unlimited hopes.
This is a story about a girl called Yangdol and her life in a remote Himalayan village in the mountain kingdom of Ladakh. She dreams of seeing a Snow Leopard—one of the most elusive creatures on the planet. Self-published by indie artists Pankaj Singh and Athulya Pillai, and inspired by stories they’ve heard on their travels, ‘Yangdol’ is a beautiful lesson in kindness towards all animals—and a treat for all ages.
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