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


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