Human/Animal A Bestiary in Essays

Amie Souza Reilly bought an old house in the suburbs. She had just gotten remarried and was looking forward to a new start with her new husband and her six-year-old son. But immediately after moving in, the two brothers who lived next door began an insidious crusade to push them out. They followed her, peered in her windows, stood in her yard, trapped her inside her car. As they broke boundary after suburban boundary, she found herself implicated in their violence. Human/Animal merges personal narrative and cultural criticism to unleash the complicated relationship between instinct and action, violence and regret. This bestiary-in-essays wrestles with American colonialism, horror films, feminism, and gender studies to confront the intrusive neighbors the author could not. Ultimately, this book asks larger questions about civility, care, and the line between human and animal. Illustrated with the author's own sketches, Human/Animal grapples not only with Reilly's place in her neighborhood, but with America's past and current political climate.