I’m revisiting some older articles, and this is one, Five on Friday, I wrote for Jill’s Book Cafe Blog back in 2023 just after my fifth novel, The Memory of Animals was published (I’ve edited it slightly to update links etc). Five on Friday takes the format of five questions which require five answers. Read on to find out five things most people don’t know about me, five things I’d still like to achieve, and more.
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Today only – 20th August 2024 – The Memory of Animals is 99p on Kindle in the UK.
Buy it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Memory-Animals-Novel-winning-author-Unsettled-ebook/dp/B0B76GLDGN/
I’m hosting a Giveaway on Instagram for a signed copy of Viv Groskop’s memoir, One Ukrainian Summer, and a signed copy of the paperback of The Memory of Animals. To enter visit my Instagram account: www.instagram.com/writerclairefuller, find my post with this image and follow the instructions.
The Giveaway is open to everyone no matter where you live, and closes on 21st July.
I’ve just finished reading One Ukrainian Summer and I loved it! It’s an account of a year in the 1990s when Viv travelled to Russia as part of her university degree. Age twenty, she works in St. Petersburg teaching English, and falls in love with a Ukrainian rock star. Things are not as she expects when she travels to his home in Ukraine to see him on stage. It’s funny and sweet, and so interesting to read about Russia just after it stopped being the USSR.
The Memory of Animals is published in paperback in the UK today, 4th July. There might be other things on people’s minds on the day of the general election, but I’m delighted to see this novel about love, survival and octopuses out in the world. I’ve heard from my editor at Fig Tree Penguin that lots of copies have gone out to Waterstones, and independent bookshops, and of course there are plenty of places online to buy a copy.
Click here to buy a copy from Bookshop.org
Newsletter giveaway
I’ll be running a giveaway for a signed copy to a UK-based reader on my newsletter. So sign up here.
Instagram collaborations
I’m very excited to be collaborating with four fantastic authors over the next four weeks on Instagram to giveaway copies of their novels and The Memory of Animals. I’ll be starting next week with Sarah Freethy, the author of the fabulous The Porcelain Maker, and culminating in a very exciting giveaway in conjunction with my publisher. So do follow me on Instagram.
Book club visits
If your book club would like to read The Memory of Animals (lots of meaty themes and issues to discuss) I’d be delighted to visit your group when you meet to discuss it, either in person if you’re in Hampshire, or online. All I ask in return is a donation (of any amount) to Read Easy Winchester – an organisation that helps adults learn to read. Drop me a line to discuss further.
Book club questions and signed bookplates
If you would like book club questions for The Memory of Animals (or any of my previous novels), or signed bookplates, please get in touch. No charge, but I would appreciate a small donation to Read Easy Winchester.
Event in Wendover, Buckinghamshire
I’m delighted to be celebrating the publication of the paperback with an event at Real Magic Books in Wendover, Buckinghamshire on 9th July. Tickets and more information here.
I couldn’t get a deer for my publication day image, so a couple of goats kissing will have to do. These two live at the end of my garden in a neighbour’s meadow, and when she goes away, I get to feed them. I don’t know their proper names but we call them The Fonz and Lady.
But I’m not here to tell you about goats, no matter how much I love them, instead I’m here to tell you that it’s paperback publication day for The Memory of Animals in North America. The jacket is still that wonderful hyper-realist painting of a deer with coral growing up its legs by Lisa Ericson, designed by Beth Steidle. So thanks to her and all the wonderful people at Tin House.
The paperback is available to buy from all bookshops and online, or if you fancy entering my giveaway on Instagram for a North American reader to get a signed copy, click here.
If you do spot the book in your local bookstore, don’t forget to take a picture and send it to me.
Happy reading!
Claire
This interview about The Memory of Animals with Mark Reynolds was first published in Bookanista in April 2023.
The novel opens like a kind of lockdown fever dream. When and where did you conceive it, and what were the first lines you wrote?
I started it in September 2019 as a few pieces of flash fiction about a pandemic, so four months before I heard any mention of an actual pandemic and six months before the UK’s first lockdown. I’ve always loved reading post-apocalyptic novels and so I thought I’d write one. Plus one of my son’s friends told me about Flu Camp, where he’d been part of a flu vaccine trial which involved being isolated in a room in a unit for two weeks.
I do still have the first lines:
In the treatment room I lift up a chair and shove its legs against one of the locked glass cabinets. I expect it to be made of some kind of hard plastic, but it’s glass and it shatters. I wait to see who will come, Kit or Alice, or Marjorie. James is too ill to get out of bed. I should go and check on him, but I don’t. We hadn’t broken into this one because we can see what it contains: bandages, eye-patches, treatment for stubborn earwax and verrucas.
The idea of this was used in a scene in the final book but it was substantially changed, as were Kit, Alice, Marjorie and James!
How would you sum up the book in around 25 words?
Neffy, a 27-year-old marine biologist volunteers for a vaccine trial. Following a bad reaction, she finds herself alone with four strangers in the midst of a pandemic. Plus, octopuses!
This novel was first announced as Body of Water. What brought about the title change?
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I’m delighted to let you know that The Memory of Animals has won an AudioFile Earphones Award for the audio book, narrated by actress Genevieve Gaunt. The award is given to truly exceptional titles that excel in narrative voice and style, characterizations, suitability to audio, and enhancement of the text.
This is what AudioFile said:
“Genevieve Gaunt performs this compelling audiobook about a near-future pandemic. Neffy is one of the few people to take the vaccine and survive. Gaunt portrays her in a vulnerable tone and youthful timbre. Gaunt’s crisp English accent works well with this London-based story. The postapocalyptic plot follows Neffy and four other 20-somethings who are surviving in a “biopharm” facility as they come to terms with the ghastly reality outside their doors. Neffy’s story flashes back to the past as she uses a “revisiting” machine to reconnect with her lover and stepbrother. This is an engaging and immersive listen.”
I was lucky enough to be a guest of Penguin and go into the studio when Genevieve was recording it, and I thought she was amazing. There are lots of different accents and voices in the novel, and she gets them all perfect for my ears.
The audio book is available from Audible UK, and Audible US, both with Genevieve narrating.
If you’ve listened to the audio book of The Memory of Animals, let me know!
Today I’m finally allowed to reveal the US and Canadian cover for my fifth novel, The Memory of Animals. And oh my goodness, I love it so much. It’s designed by Beth Steidle, Tin House Associate Director of Design & Production, using art work by Lisa Ericson.
It will be published by Tin House on June 6 2023, and you can find out a bit more about it here.
The Memory of Animals is available to pre-order:
In the US from Barnes and Noble, here.
In Canada from Indigo, here.
In the UK from Waterstones, here.
Please order from your local independent when you are able.
I’m excited to be able to finally reveal the UK cover for my fifth novel: The Memory of Animals. Fig Tree / Penguin, my UK publisher says it’s a ‘gripping, haunting novel about memory, love and survival’, and I’ll add…also octopuses! It’s beautiful cover is designed by Penguin designer, Julia Connolly.
The Memory of Animals is available to pre-order now, so that it can slip through your letterbox on 20th April 2023:
From Waterstones
From Bookshop.org
From Amazon