The Memory of Animals

April 1, 2023
A former marine biologist struggles to survive a global pandemic while reconciling with her difficult past. In a future that bears an uncanny resemblance to the present, Neffy, a 27-year-old former marine biologist, registers for an experimental vaccine trial, perhaps the last chance to halt a devastating worldwide pandemic. While spending three weeks in a hospital in London, Neffy and four other volunteers--Rachel, Piper, Yahiko, and Leon--watch in horror as the outside world slides further into chaos and debate what they will and won't do to try to make it out alive. Meanwhile, through experimental technology that enables people to revisit memories, which Leon was working on before the pandemic, Neffy is tempted to lose herself in the past, reliving a love affair, her childhood in England and Greece, and a brazen choice that led to the end of her career. Fuller, the author of the Costa Novel Award-winning Unsettled Ground (2021), among other books, excels in examining the everyday moments at the heart of a life: Rachel scrolling through the pictures on her phone, hoping that one day social media will come back; the group celebrating a birthday by drinking water and pretending that it's vodka. In quotidian and thrilling moments alike, Fuller expertly grapples with the sickeningly real personal and ethical complexities of human survival. In the end, however, she seems to trade her attention to nuance for an ill-defined, ethereal optimism, especially in the hurried conclusion. The novel may end on a hopeful note, but in doing so, it compromises its potential to be a great post-apocalyptic novel and instead rises just above the recent spate of pandemic-inspired narratives. A memorable meditation on how the human struggle to survive in captivity is not so different than that of our animal kin.

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Starred review from April 24, 2023
Fuller (Unsettled Ground) crafts a haunting novel of second chances set in a near-future pandemic. Twenty-something Neffy, still grieving the loss of her father and embarrassed by the crumbling of her marine biology career after a professional misstep, signs up as a vaccine test subject during the early days of the pandemic. While Neffy and her fellow volunteers are isolated in a London hospital as they undergo treatment, the virus, nicknamed “Dropsy,” develops a new and deadly variant, which causes sudden memory loss before certain death. Neffy, who may have developed immunity, is identified as the group’s best hope for the future, but after fellow test subject Leon introduces her to a new technology called Revisiting, which allows her to relive moments from her past, she becomes increasingly drawn to the treatment. Fuller’s intricately structured narrative makes great use of the Revisiting conceit, allowing Neffy’s history—including her love for an octopus she once cared for at an aquarium—to wrap itself around an increasingly nightmarish present, as Neffy uncovers secrets about the virus’s progression that other volunteers have been keeping from her. The entwined pain and pleasure of memory is at the heart of Neffy’s story, as is the hard work of establishing trust and finding forgiveness, particularly for oneself. This is a pandemic novel, yes, but one that radically transcends the label.

May 1, 2023
Neffy is in it for the money. Or so says the marine biologist who enrolls in a vaccine trial for the deadly Dropsy virus that's decimating the world. Exposed to the virus and injected with the vaccine in the hospital, Neffy wakes up to a bizarre environment. The medical professionals have left. The few people who remain are unexposed test subjects. The meager food portions are depleting quickly. Outside the London hospital building, the virus rages, with new variants killing mercilessly. Probably immune Neffy is the only person who could venture outside and find food. Interspersed with the taut hospital narrative are two other story lines: Neffy's love of octopuses and descriptions of her past, particularly her father's illness and an illicit love interest. Fuller (Unsettled Ground, 2021) is best when describing the slow unraveling of the hospital group. The other sections are distracting and feel disjointed. Nevertheless, the novel makes us ponder what we owe each other as humans. It turns out the kindness of strangers can only take us so far.

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Starred review from May 1, 2023

Fuller's compelling fifth novel (after the Costa Award-winning Unsettled Ground) takes place during a near-future pandemic that has caused widespread death, with people panicking, roads jammed, and supermarket shelves bare. At a secret lab near London, healthy young volunteers lured by a lot of money are to receive an untested vaccine, followed by an injection of the virus. Marine biologist Neffy is the first volunteer to be injected, but her bad reaction frightens the staff and other volunteers, who make a hasty exit. Unconscious for a week, Neffy recovers to the horror of being abandoned and locked in the lab with only four other volunteers, none of whom have received the vaccine. With no rescue in sight, Neffy has plenty to think about in addition to their survival, and her presumed immunity means that she is the one to venture outside the lab to face roving gangs, infected people, and the putrefying dead to bring back food and water. Their last hope is a barely running ambulance that could allow them to escape to the countryside for a better future. VERDICT A riveting, don't-miss account of what some may see as the reality to come; long-time Fuller readers will relish this completely engrossing story, which questions what we value most.--Donna Bettencourt

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