Thirsty Animals

Our Review

“There must have been warning signs long before last year – maybe the explosion of dandelions taking over verges, or the lack of badgers and moles for Bobby to contend with compared to other years. And now a country with a population of sixty odd million had essentially run dry and was attempting mass migration into a population with one-tenth it’s numbers, curbed by little more than a physical border, controlled by the military, while patrols monitored our choppy waters, turning the boats back that hadn’t already capsized.”

Thirsty Animals by Rachelle Atalla is one of my favourite examples of contemporary climate fiction. Atalla’s storytelling creates a simmering tension from the very first page, drawing readers into a Britain where water scarcity has forced society to the brink.

One of Thirsty Animals greatest strengths lies in its characters. Aida, 21, has returned home reluctantly to help at the family farm after the water crisis made things at home difficult. This was clearly not a selfless choice and yet the reader can feel some empathy for Aida. She is selfish and resentful, but she returned.

Aida is vegetarian and has attended climate marches in the past but there are suggestions at other times in the book that her commitment to environmental concerns is superficial at best, and that she, like most, had a defeatist attitude towards climate concerns.  

I think this is part of what makes Thirsty Animals particularly impactful. The novel’s exploration of environmental concerns feels personal, particularly to those of us reading in the UK. It is not set in some far-off US state, it could be happening here.  The setting helps create a sense of urgency and prompts readers to reflect on their own relationship with the world around them

“The drought had been threatening us since last summer, but it still seemed to take us by surprise – a once-in-a-thousand-years sort of thing, they kept saying. I’d gone on climate marches, attended, but the jet streams were still threatening to collapse, moving as far North as Iceland, leaving the majority of Europe in a situation it had never really experienced before. We’d had our mildest, driest Winter, with almost no rainfall, and now it was Easter – summer would soon be approaching, and we had no idea when rain might arrive.”

Throughout Thirsty Animals Atalla lays bare the psychological and emotional toll trying to survive in desperate circumstances would take. The sense of unease is added to by the existing strain on Aida’s relationship with her mother.

Her mother has a secret cupboard where she has been stockpiling supplies such as bottled water, water purifying tablets, and sanitary towels. Aida confronts her mum about it and asks if it doesn’t bother her that others are having to go without because she is stockpiling.

She is also disdainful of her mother’s suspicions of the strangers who arrive at their home seeking help.

“At what point in the drought’s progression did we grow to be suspicious of new arrivals? When had we decided that someone unknown driving towards us merited the shotgun?”

Thirsty Animals is a dark novel and shows the depths seemingly normal people can sink to in matters of survival, but it also shows that even in the direst of circumstances there is room for hope.

Our Final Rating...

10 Hours Ago