Laura Jean McKay – författare

WINNER OF THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARDA SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAROut on the road, no one speaks, everything talks.Hard-drinking, foul-mouthed grandma Jean has never been good at getting on with other humans, apart from her granddaughter, Kimberly. Instead, she surrounds herself with animals, working as a guide in an outback wildlife park.Then, a strange pandemic begins sweeping the country, its chief symptom that its victims begin to understand the language of animals. Many infected people lose their minds, including Jean’s son, Lee.When he takes off with Kimberly, Jean follows, with Sue the dingo riding shotgun. As they travel, they discover a stark, strange world in which the animal apocalypse has only further isolated people from other species.

A Guardian Best Fiction Book of 2023The brilliant new short story collection from the Arthur C. Clarke Award—winning author of The Animals in That Country. A family of cat farmers gets the chance to set the felines free. A group of chickens tells it like it is. A female-crewed ship ploughs through the patriarchy. A support group finds solace in a world without men.With her trademark humour, energy, and flair, McKay offers glimpses of places where dreams subsume reality, where childhood restarts, where humans embrace their animal selves and animals talk like humans.The stories in Gunflower explode and bloom in mesmerising ways, showing the world both as it is and as it could be.