Published in paperback 26th July 2021 by Eye and Lightning.
From the cover of the book:
A cow looks out to sea, dreaming of a life that involves grass.Jan is also looking out to sea. He’s in Goa, dreaming of the thief who stole his heart (and his passport) forty-six years ago. Back then, fate kept bringing them together, but lately it seems to have given up.
Jan has not. In his long search he has travelled the world, tangling with murderers and pick-pockets and accidentally holding a whole Russian town at imaginary gunpoint. Now he thinks if he just waits and does nothing, fate may find it easier to reunite them – if only he can shake off an annoying teenager who won’t go away. But then, perhaps an annoying teenager is exactly what Jan needs to help him find his old flame?
Featuring a menagerie of creatures, each with its own story to tell, We Are Animals is a comic Homeric odyssey with shades of Jonas Jonasson’s Hundred-Year-Old Man. A quirky, heart-warming tale of lost love, unlikely friendships and the mysteries of fate, it moves and delights in equal measure.
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This is an enchanting love story that starts with a cow looking out to sea on a beach in Goa. Sharing her beach are a number of beach bars, a few tourists (mostly of the young gap-year kind, referred to as 'vests'), and one sixty-four-year-old man called Jan (hereafter referred to as ManJan) who is waiting patiently for the love of his life to return to him - a woman who is co-incidentally also called Jan (hereafter called LadyJan), who he has not seen for thirty-eight years.
As ManJan waits, sipping reflectively at his glass of red wine, he is approached by one of the 'vests' called Shakey, who is intent on selling him a ticket for the upcoming silent disco. ManJan is not keen, but Shakey is persistent, and they somehow end up falling into conversation about why ManJan spends his days waiting on this particular beach, so very far from his roots in the small sea-side town of Fishton, England.
And so unfolds the tale of the epic romance between the two Jans, interspersed with events on the Goan beach and little asides about the animal life, as ManJan narrates the history of their relationship - starting with the episode in 1970 when LadyJan stole his passport in Sweden, after he and his fishermen friends Hylad (not his real name, but a monicker that seems to have stuck) and Michael accidentally miss Norway and end up in the wrong country.
What follows is a globetrotting caper spanning Europe, Russia and India, incorporating all sorts of absurd situations, and weird and wonderful characters, in which destiny dictates the two Jans will keep bumping into each other until their relationship blossoms. But, as we well know, the course of true love does not run smooth, and the hard knocks inflicted by tragedy eventually prove too much to bear. How will the lovers ever find their way back to each other, and is Shakey just a pesky 'vest' or actually the catalyst that will reunite them?
In We Are Animals Tim Ewins manages to pull together an almost surreal collection of vivid characters, of both human and animal form, to produce a quirky, humorous novel about love, friendship, connection and the vagaries of fate.
The story is set on an epic stage with a whole smorgasbord (very apt for a big chunk of this story) of intriguing locations, from the quiet tedium of Fishton, all the way to the exotic, bustling streets of India, via all sorts of fascinating places in between. Against these backdrops, a cast of players drawn from all walks of life, give us a glimpse into their worlds, delving into their feelings, hopes and dreams, whenever they touch the lives of ManJan and LadyJan. I particularly enjoyed the way Ewins explores some very deep themes by cleverly combining the human and animal elements, with the animal vignettes so beautifully mirroring the emotional essence of the human situations throughout - quite brilliant.
I think it's fair to say that you do need to buy into Ewins' brand of humour, enjoy a smattering of absurdity, and appreciate the off-beat format to get the best out of this book. There are chuckles galore, balanced out with moments of loss, grief and heart-ache that come with any book that looks closely at the human condition, and the threads of the story come together delightfully at the end. Imagine, if you will, a case of Danny Boyle does Matt Haig, with delicious flashes of Douglas Adams, and you might be approaching something of the way the laughs mingle so well with the poignant and uplifting moments to produce something profoundly touching and really rather lovely - for me, it is a winning combination!
We Are Animals is available to buy now in ebook and paperback formats from your favourite book retailer. From 23rd July to 8th August 2021, you can get 30% off your copy of We Are Animals using the code SQUADPOD when you purchase directly from the publishers HERE - with free P+P for UK purchases.
About the author:
Tim Ewins had an eight-year stand-up career alongside his accidental career in finance, before turning to writing fiction. He has previously written for DNA Mumbai, had two short stories highly commended and published in Michael Terence Short Story Anthologies, and had a very brief acting stint (he’s in the film Bronson, somewhere in the background).
He lives with his wife, son and dog in Bristol. We Are Animals is his first novel.
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