The Last Animal

A Novel

By: Ramona Ausubel

Narrated by: Natasha Soudek

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“Whip-smart and compulsively readable. . . both a wildly entertaining adventure story and a meditation on what it means to love your children—fiercely and imperfectly.”—Oprah Daily

“Springs alive to explore questions that stump scientists and families, problems of the head and the heart.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“A full-hearted portrait of sisterhood, family and the ways we process grief. Charming, wry, and original.” —People

TWO SISTERS, ONE MOM, AND ONE WOOLLY SECRET.

Teenage sisters Eve and Vera never imagined their summer vacation would be spent in the Arctic, tagging along on their mother’s scientific expedition. But there’s a lot about their lives lately that hasn’t been going as planned, and truth be told, their single mother might not be so happy either.

Now in Siberia with a bunch of serious biologists, Eve and Vera are just bored enough to cause trouble. Fooling around in the permafrost, they accidentally discover a perfectly preserved, four-thousand-year-old baby mammoth, and things finally start to get interesting. The discovery sets off a surprising chain of events, leading mother and daughters to go rogue, pinging from the slopes of Siberia to the shores of Iceland to an exotic animal farm in Italy, and resulting in the birth of a creature that could change the world—or at least this family.

The Last Animal takes readers on a wild, entertaining, and refreshingly different kind of journey, one that explores the possibilities and perils of the human imagination on a changing planet, what it’s like to be a woman in a field dominated by men, and how a wondrous discovery can best be enjoyed with family. Even teenagers.

Great story

Loved the storyline and details. It was very interesting and followed a path that led you wanting to hear more.

Unique story- combined science, anthropology, women’s roles in society, and dealing with grief.

Well written! Great descriptive language. In the audio book, I liked the reader, but not how she did Eve’s voice or Helen’s.

Good story, but not what I expected

I think I expected an optimistic climate change epic like Ministry of the Future. There are glimpses of hope here but the scope is kind of small and the trajectory of the mammoth story made me kind of sad. I also thought the mom and her oldest daughter were pretty insufferable in how self absorbed and negligent they were towards the youngest daughter. This is a story about grief, and grief can make people act strangely, but they both felt too old to be neglecting their youngest family member like that.

very boring and disappointing

terrible mother,selfish and greedy act in creating Pearl with no thought of how to take care of her. I did like the 2 sisters together.

Stunning

With a wild premise, a bravery to face of the sadness of climate collapse, an unsentimental and humor rich perspective of a teen girl,her sister,, rich fresh language and such a mastery of individual traits and personality proclivities with the smallest nordic noir-esque plot points and the shimmering of implausible scientific surrealism made so human and poignant. I will think of these sisters, their mother and Sophie for a long time to come.