ESL Book Discussion

This session (8/7/24) of the ESL Book Discussion will meet at FCL-Farmington in the Meeting Room located at 23500 Liberty St, Farmington, MI 48335

Registration Requested

We'll meet in person to discuss Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett over several weeks. You'll read about 40 pages each week on your own, and then we'll answer questions and discuss plot developments when we meet on Wednesdays. Our last day will be August 14th. Copies of the book are available at both the FCL Farmington and FCL Farmington Hills Information Desks.

Discussion schedule:

• June 26: Prologue & Ch. 1-6, Pg. 3-48
• July 3: Ch. 7-14, Pg. 51-96
• July 10: Ch. 15-21, Pg. 99-130
• July 17: Ch. 22-30, Pg. 131-173
• July 24: Ch. 31-37, Pg. 174-206
• July 31: Ch. 38-46, Pg. 209-249
• August 7: Ch. 47-55, Pg. 250-294
• August 14: Ch. 56-64, Pg. 295-341

* Page numbers may vary if you are reading an e-book. Chapters will match.

Description: A lost young woman returns to small-town New Hampshire under the strangest of circumstances in this one-of-a-kind novel of life, death, and whatever comes after from the acclaimed author of Rabbit Cake. The Starlings live in Everton, an ordinary enough New Hampshire town. It's notable only for Corbin Park, an enormous hunting park, and for Maple Street Cemetery--home to many former residents of Everton. There's also the town legend that Emma Starling was born with healing hands. But Emma has never found the right use for her healing abilities, and they've been on the fritz ever since her childhood best friend, Crystal, fell prey to addiction and disappeared. No one went looking for her; the police don't spend much time looking for drug addicts. Now Emma has come back to Everton to see her dying father, the only person who has kept up the search for Crystal. Ever since his recent diagnosis with a rare brain disease, Clive Sterling has been seeing ghosts, including Ernest Harold Baynes, the long-dead naturalist who worked in Corbin Park, and who seems to have some unfinished business in Everton. The residents of Maple Street have their own agenda, too--they'd like to see Emma live up to her potential as a miracle worker and cure her father. Emma's not exactly up for the challenge, though. Recently expelled from medical school, she takes a job as a substitute fifth-grade teacher to get back on her feet and stay close to home. As her father's condition worsens, it's all Emma can do to stay afloat. She isn't trying to be a hero--just a passable guardian to her father and her fifth-graders--but somehow she still sets in motion just the kind of miracle the town needs. Set against the backdrop of a small town in the throes of a very real opioid crisis, Unlikely Animals is a novel about familial expectations, imperfect friendships, and the possibility of resurrecting that which had been thought irrevocably lost.