The Last Animal

A Novel

By: Ramona Ausubel

Narrated by: Natasha Soudek

Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

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 listeners 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.

©2023 Ramona Ausubel (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“I know it's hard to imagine, but The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel, is like a sweeter, more poignant version of ‘Jurassic Park.’ This shaggy elephant story is as much about surviving family grief as it is about living in a world doomed by climate change. And yet, every family, after all, goes extinct eventually. The paradox that this novel confronts with such tender sympathy and humor is how to love the time we have left.”—The Washington Post

"Ausubel is a supernaturally gifted writer whose heart, soul, wit and intellect are evident in every wacky setting, character and plot line she weaves. Few authors can do what she does, seemingly effortlessly: spin saucy yet kind-spirited social satire while exploring a multitude of topical and archetypal subjects—all within a single work, all in sentences that sing… Forget everything you think you know about your reading tastes, sink into [Ausubel's] weird world and prepare to fall in love with a 4,000-year-old baby mammoth.”—LA Times

"Soars where so many other books about family dynamics simply coast. . . Ausubel brings deep emotional truth to her work of dramatic fiction. . . Splicing wit and wisdom, The Last Animal is a bright-eyed meditation on what animates us, biologically as well as emotionally—but most of all, familially.”—NPR

Great story

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

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.

Fantastic audio narrated with perfection!

I LOVE “The Last Animal”! It’s a feminist eco-scheme science fiction story posing as a madcap adventure. Author Ramona Ausubel kept me rolling in laughter with her witty one-liners such as: “It’s like they always say, you look down for one week to breed a woolly mammoth and when you look up again your little girls have turned into women.” Or “We will either be rich and famous, or we will fail in beautiful anonymity.” Or when one daughter watched their mother working in a sexist environment and thought she looked like she was performing in “Lab girl the Musical”.

So many wonderful female characters populate this story. Jane hauls her teenaged girls, Vera and Eve to Siberia in search of wooly mammoth bones. All three females are grieving the loss of Jane’s husband, the girl’s father. Jane’s husband died a year prior when he suffered a car crash while transporting Neanderthal tissue samples. There’s a climate change theme buried in the caper as well. It is apparent from the get-go that Jane is being used by the patriarchy. Jane feels it and the girls see it. Ausubel chose to write her female characters as witty and resourceful. I LOVED the teenage girls. Eve is a weary 15-year-old, and Vera is the sweet spark. Vera’s observations kept my heart soft and amused.

While in Siberia, the two girls wonder off and find a whole, perfectly preserved baby woolly mammoth. Of course the men on the expedition wrongly appropriate the discovery and name it Aleksei after themselves, even though the girls discovered it.

Upon their return in Berkeley, Jane meets an eccentric millionaire named Helen who owns a castle and a wild animal preserve in northern Italy off Lake Como. Helen has ideas that will give both women credit for a discovery that is rightfully Jane’s. There’s a theory that resurrecting prehistoric mammals might protect the melting permafrost from global warming by stamping down the snow(there’s more, I’m summarizing poorly). Helen flies the girls to Iceland and then to her exotic animal preserve promising to help Jane reclaim her ownership.

What could possibly go wrong? This story holds the sweetest pinky swear EVER! Again, this has so many themes woven into this mad-cap adventure. The domestic fiction mother/daughter story is adorable. There’s the global-warming theme. The feminist piece with the misogynic workplace, not to mention a meditation on grief. These are very heady and depressing topics. But they aren’t depressing in Ausubel’s skilled hands. She delivers many messages as you are charmed and educated.

I listened to the audio, narrated impeccably by Natasha Soudek. She is amazing and I’ll look for other novels she’s narrated. Her voice nuances for the teenaged girls was perfection. I highly recommend the audio!

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.

Incredible read

A book about grief and the natural world and complicated families that manages to not be depressing! It’s also got a good story going and the writing is so great.

Okay for a Light Read

Somewhat interesting story line. Characters did not engage me. Held my interest enough to finish.

Finally, a unique storyline

Really enjoyed this book. No cookie cutter novel here. Characters were interesting and funny at times. Well read.

Not something to recommend

I had trouble with the reader. she sounded half asleep and / or bored. there was no excitement or enthusiasm.
the written version might have been more interesting. it was a very wordy book .
I would not recommend it.

More about family drama than science

If you're looking for a thought-provoking work of fiction that explores the controversies around re-creating extinct animals, this is not the book for you. This book is more about depicting a family's grief with the mammoth story as backdrop. Also the subject of women being disregarded and disrespected in the science field is largely outdated. The protagonist's struggles did not invoke any sympathy from me and I thought her relationship with her daughters was inappropriate (e.g., the constant complaining to them regarding her unfair treatment at work). I didn't like the reader either - her intonations for the girls' voices particularly- were annoying. But, if all you want is a light, easy read, it will suffice.

Waste of time

Perplexed as to how this shows up on any list of must reads since it is one dimensional filled with tween/teen dialogue and concerns. The science, such as it is, and the potentially interesting family dynamics, are lost in this child’s play.