The Last Animal
by Ramona Ausubel
Buy on AmazonThe Last Animal is a 2023 science fiction novel by Ramona Ausubel. The novel follows a newly-widowed mother and her two teenaged daughters. During a scientific expedition in Siberia, the girls stumble upon a perfectly-preserved baby wooly mammoth, and the family must choose how to move forward with this scientific discovery.
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"It is the Age of Extinction, with the most recent death being that of Jane’s beloved husband, dead in a car accident. Jane, a graduate student in paleobiology, takes her daughters to Siberia on a research trip, and while there, the girls discover something miraculous: an entire baby mammoth frozen in the ice. Back in the U.S., trying to return to their regular lives, Jane and her daughters continue to grapple with their grief – both personal and ecological. When an opportunity to do some experimental science comes up, they jump on it, throwing caution and proper procedure to the wind."
NPR Books We Love — 2023 · apps.npr.org