Animalia

The buzz surrounding this award-winning French author’s first English translation—the saga of a family of pig farmers—always includes a warning along the lines of “You’ll never eat bacon again!” Well, I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of literary challenge I feel compelled to accept. Del Amo’s rich, heady style almost overwhelms the imaginative senses, immediately plunging readers into the gorgeous and grisly of Gascon peasant life. We meet farmer’s daughter Éléonore pre-WWI, when human-porcine relations are interdependent if not entirely pleasant, but by the time she is a great-grandmother, (possibly) inevitable forces have twisted that relationship until the farm is untenable for pigs and people alike. It’s a visceral book, but also heart-breaking and thought-provoking—recommended for those who read environmental nonfiction as well as those who, like me, prefer to investigate most topics through a narrative lens. Timely and engaging, Animalia might be the most important book I’ve read all year. P.S. I’m still eating bacon, but much more, um, consciously.