Fauna

By: Christiane Vadnais, Pablo Strauss

Narrated by: Sabryn Rock

In a near-future world ravaged by climate change, who will win in the struggle between humanity and nature?

A thick fog rolls in over Shivering Heights. The river overflows, the sky is streaked with toxic green, parasites proliferate in torrential rains, and once safely classified species - humans included - are evolving and behaving in unprecedented ways. Against this poetically hostile backdrop, a biologist, Laura, fights to understand the nature and scope of the changes transforming her own body and the world around her.

Ten lush and bracing linked climate fictions depict a world gorgeous and terrifying in its likeness to our own.

Fauna, Christiane Vadnais’ first work of fiction, won the Horizons Imaginaires speculative fiction award and the City of Quebec book award and was named one of 2018’s best books by Radio-Canada.

©2020 Christiane Vadnais (P)2021 Coach House Books

Critic reviews

“Vadnais’ exciting debut immerses the reader into the dreamy and menacing near-future world of Shivering Heights, a flooded wilderness in the twilight of the human race.... The sumptuous imagery and limpid atmosphere forms a dizzying picture of a world after human existence. This dark, sensual novel invites the reader to imagine nature thriving in the toxic aftermath of human domination, and makes for an essential addition to the recent crop of eco-fiction.” (Publishers Weekly)

“A spirited vision of the end times that reminds us that a new one will be born out of the old, as savage and alive as the previous one’s primitive beginnings.” (La Presse)

“Reminiscent of Ovid, Kafka, and Wells...[Fauna] depicts the hypnotic Darwinian nightmare our negligence and denial will lead us to in the coming years.” (Le Devoir)

What was the point?

I don’t know what the point of this book was. It was very boring to me. Nothing really happened and there was no actual story going on. And all the chapters were so disconnected it was really hard to follow along. And when introducing most of the characters, it was like you should have known who that chapter was beforehand or something. There was no clear introduction to some of the characters. It was very descriptive and the performance was okay but nothing to really rave about. I feel like this book was kind of a waste of time. I kept listening in hopes that it would get more interesting, that there would have been more to the story, but nothing ever happened.