Fifty Impressive Novels With Prominent Animal Characters: A Menagerie
(alphabetically by animal)
alligators: Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
ants: Ant Colony by Michael DeForge
bees: The Bees by Laline Paull
bears, black: Bear by Marian Engel
bears, brown: Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
bears, Marsican: The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily by Dino Buzzati
bears, teddy: Winkie by Clifford Chase
beetles: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
cats, domestic: The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide
cats, Mephistophelian: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
cats, stray: Cabo de Gata by Eugen Ruge
chickens: Elmer by Gerry Alanguilan
chimpanzees, as family members: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
chimpanzees, as murder witnesses: The Poison Oracle by Peter Dickinson
cockroaches: The Cockroaches of Stay More by Donald Harington
cows: The Wall by Marlen Haushofer
crows: Grief Is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
dingoes: The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay
dinosaurs: Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend by Alan Cumyn
dogs, Great Danes: The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
dogs, guard: Faithful Ruslan by Georgi Vladimov
dogs, terriers: Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome
dragons: The Dragon Griaule by Lucius Shepard
ducks: Fup by Jim Dodge
elephants, African: The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy
elephants, Indian: The Tusk That Did the Damage by Tania James
elephants, nonspecific: The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
extraterrestrial fuzz beings: Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper
foxes: Blue Fox by Sjón
giraffes: Giraffe by J.M. Ledgard
horses: Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin
impossible creatures, contemporary: Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge
impossible creatures, legendary: The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney
insects, various: The Life of Insects by Victor Pelevin
lions: The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz by Russell Hoban
mice: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
newts: War with the Newts by Karel Čapek
octopuses: From the Wreck by Jane Rawson
ostriches: Yesterday by Juan Emar
parrots: The Mutations by Jorge Comensal
pigs, not to mention spiders: Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
polymorphs, bioengineered: Borne by Jeff VanderMeer
polymorphs, empirical: Palafox by Éric Chevillard
rabbits: Watership Down by Richard Adams
rats: Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage
sea monsters: Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
sheep: A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
turtles: Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban
unicorns: The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
whales: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
— January 20, 2023