Animal People by Charlotte Wood

JUDGES' COMMENTS

Thirty-nine year old Stephen Connolly works in a cafe at the zoo, lives in a small, shabby apartment and is overwhelmed by the demands of his widowed mother and his overbearing sister. He loves his girlfriend, Fiona, and her children, Ella and Larry. Despite this, and for reasons he doesn’t understand himself, he decides to end their relationship.

Charlotte Wood is an acute observer and her descriptions of urban and family life are witty and insightful. In her depiction of one day in one ordinary man’s life, she skilfully examines the fraught nature of relationships: from the complexities of step-parenting and sibling misunderstanding to the need for love in its various forms, whether it’s the love of a person or the love for an animal. Animal People is a clever, moving and lyrical work.