In 'Wolf-Boy Saturday,' a linguist grasps for connection with a young boy whose negligent upbringing has left him unable to speak. In 'Porcelain Legs,' a pre-teen fixes on the long, thick hair growing from her mother's eyelid. Bodies are divided, often elusive, even grotesque. Throughout The Whole Animal, flawed characters wrestle with the complexities of relationships with partners, parents, children, and friends as they struggle to find identity, belonging, and autonomy. Move over, James Fenimore Cooper: a woman has come to take your place.A refreshingly original debut collection of short stories that grapple with the self-alienation and self-discovery that make us human.įor fans of Souvankham Thammavongsa, Lynn Coady, and Lisa Moore comes a striking debut collection of short stories that explore bodies both human and animal: our fascination with their strange effluences, growths, and protrusions, and the dangerous ways we play with their power to inflict harm on ourselves and on others. We’ll never see this American icon-and now, his wife, Rebecca-the same way again. ' History raw and bleeding, My Name Is a Knife is a superb sequel to the inside story of Daniel Boone begun in Alix Hawley’s first novel, as exciting as it is thoughtful. Hawley’s tale of Daniel Boone is an elegy, a horror story, a breathtaking reminder of what settlers did here (and still do).” “All the beauty and violence of Hilary Mantel, Michael Ondaatje or Cormac McCarthy-yet these are books like no others. If you crossed the best of Michael Ondaatje with the best of Alice Munro, Alix Hawley is what you'd get.' This is a historical novel, but more than that it's an existential novel, sensuous, philosophical, with carefully drawn characters and deep dives into the human consciousness. 'Hawley's brilliant second novel continues the story of American frontiersman Daniel Boone. Praise for My Name Is a Knife Spectacular. Alix's chapbook essay on photography available now .Alix is a 2020 CBC Short Story Prize judge with Rawi Hage and David Bezmozgis.Join Alix for a conversation with Laird Hunt and Linda Spalding at the Toronto International Festival of Authors on 25 October, 2021.New essay at The Walrus: 'The Year of Witch Lit'.

All True Not a Lie in It by Alix Hawley