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image of person or book cover 6788715829654970363.png
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon New Animal single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2021... 2021 New Animal
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'… most nights I find myself trying to combine with someone else to become this two-headed thing with flailing limbs, chomping teeth, and tangled hair. This new animal. I am medicated by another body. Drunk on warm skin. Dumbly high on the damp friction between them and me.

'It's not easy getting close to people. Amelia's meeting a lot of men but once she gets the sex she wants from them, that's it for her; she can't connect further. A terrible thing happened to Daniel last year and it's stuck inside Amelia ever since, making her stuck too.

'Maybe being a cosmetician at her family's mortuary business isn't the best job for a young woman. It's not helping her social life. She loves her job, but she's not great at much else. Especially emotion.

'And then something happens to her mum and suddenly Amelia's got too many feelings and the only thing that makes any sense to her is running away.

'It takes the intervention of her two fathers and some hilariously wrong encounters with other broken people in a struggling Tasmanian BDSM club to help her accept the truth she has been hiding from. And in a final, cataclysmic scene, we learn along with Amelia that you need to feel another person's weight before you can feel your own.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Notes

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Crows Nest, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2021 .
      image of person or book cover 6788715829654970363.png
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 234p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published March 2021.
      ISBN: 9781760877798
    • Crows Nest, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2022 .
      image of person or book cover 2085071382532902338.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 240p.
      Note/s:
      • Published May 2022
      ISBN: 9781761067549
    • Crows Nest, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2022 .
      image of person or book cover 6710373877748257585.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 240p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 5th July 2022
      ISBN: 9781761067549
    • Columbus, Ohio,
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Two Dollar Radio ,
      2022 .
      image of person or book cover 6134497646426044611.png
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 212p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 15 February 2022.
      ISBN: 9781953387127 (pbk), 9781953387134 (ebk)

Other Formats

  • Large print.
  • Dyslexic edition.

Works about this Work

Dissociating the Novel Ursula Robinson-Shaw , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , February 2022;

— Review of New Animal Ella Baxter , 2021 single work novel

'Here is my little hypothesis: People love to say that the problem with Australian literature is a lack of critical culture. It’s not. It’s that people don’t read Australian literature, and then they lie about it online. Every day I open Instagram and think, it is so brave of you to post a picture of that book you haven’t read. Someone could ask you a single question about it and the whole house of cards would come down. But nobody will, because they haven’t read it either.'  (Introduction)

Different Territory : Three New Novels Debra Adelaide , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 431 2021; (p. 31-32)

— Review of From Where I Fell Susan Johnson , 2021 single work novel ; New Animal Ella Baxter , 2021 single work novel
Ella Baxter : New Animal Linda Godfrey , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , April 2021;

— Review of New Animal Ella Baxter , 2021 single work novel

'Ella Baxter’s debut novel is about a young woman attempting to make sense of her world and her body after she has experienced two serious bouts of grief. This needs to be said upfront because a reader could get caught up in the detail of this story and forget that this young woman is experiencing deep pain.' (Introduction)

Intimacy, Sexuality and Senses of Identity Gretchen Shirm , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20 March 2021; (p. 16)

— Review of New Animal Ella Baxter , 2021 single work novel ; The Performance Claire Thomas , 2021 single work novel
Intimacy, Sexuality and Senses of Identity Gretchen Shirm , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20 March 2021; (p. 16)

— Review of New Animal Ella Baxter , 2021 single work novel ; The Performance Claire Thomas , 2021 single work novel
Ella Baxter : New Animal Linda Godfrey , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , April 2021;

— Review of New Animal Ella Baxter , 2021 single work novel

'Ella Baxter’s debut novel is about a young woman attempting to make sense of her world and her body after she has experienced two serious bouts of grief. This needs to be said upfront because a reader could get caught up in the detail of this story and forget that this young woman is experiencing deep pain.' (Introduction)

Different Territory : Three New Novels Debra Adelaide , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 431 2021; (p. 31-32)

— Review of From Where I Fell Susan Johnson , 2021 single work novel ; New Animal Ella Baxter , 2021 single work novel
Dissociating the Novel Ursula Robinson-Shaw , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , February 2022;

— Review of New Animal Ella Baxter , 2021 single work novel

'Here is my little hypothesis: People love to say that the problem with Australian literature is a lack of critical culture. It’s not. It’s that people don’t read Australian literature, and then they lie about it online. Every day I open Instagram and think, it is so brave of you to post a picture of that book you haven’t read. Someone could ask you a single question about it and the whole house of cards would come down. But nobody will, because they haven’t read it either.'  (Introduction)

Last amended 7 Feb 2024 15:55:04
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