Animal Crackers

A zoo worker, cautiously washing down Marysue the elephant, thinks of the strange, grim stories his co-workers have told him about their lives. Giraffes in another zoo demand better living conditions and stage a mock group suicide to attract public notice. A girl escapes her repressive finishing school by running off with her lover to the African jungle - but takes longer to give the slip to the private detectives hired by her father. Hannah Tinti's debut collection combines the virtues of traditional story-telling with utter freshness and modernity. Snake or dog, buffalo or turkey, the animals in her brilliant, darkly comic stories are never cute, as they hold up a disturbing mirror to the human beings around them.