Animals

From the winner of Argentina's National Endowment of the Arts Prize and the Manuel Rojas Ibero-American Narrative Prize comes this series of reflections on critters and their natural or not-so-natural habitats. Hebe Uhart's Animals tells of piglets that snack on crackers, parrots that rehearse their words at night, southern screamers that lurk at the front door of a decrepit aunt's house, and, of course, human animals, whose presence is treated with the same inquisitive sharpness and sweetness that marks all of Uhart's work. Animals is a joyous reordering of attention towards the beings with whom we share the planet. In prose that tracks the goings on of creatures who care little what we do or say, a refreshing humility emerges, and with it a newfound pleasure in the everyday. Watching a whistling heron, Uhart writes, that rebellious crest gives it a lunatic air. Birds in the park and dogs in the street will hold a different interest after reading Uhart's blissful foray into playful zoology.