Real Animal

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An epic, transformative novel following a young woman as she navigates a series of romantic relationships, reckons with the false promise of family intimacy, and seeks connection with the sublime and natural worlds.

Lucy is a senior in college struggling to quell the effects of a sexual assault when she gets a glimpse into a different plane of existence - one that is more wild, physical, animal. Unable to shake the experience, she moves away from home, breaks up with her long-term boyfriend, stops speaking to her mother, and starts dating a dynamic man with a terrifying violent streak.

As she changes cities, friends, and partners, an otherworldly existential force thrums in the back of her mind. It urges her to reject the ordinary, but also reminds her that she is alone in the world. She feels it in the ocean while deep-sea diving, in the cold silences from her mother, in the unknowing gaze of the man she thought would be her soulmate.

We follow Lucy over the course of a decade, witnessing moments of both horrific pain and quotidian happiness. The years pass by seamlessly, bringing her to the edge of her twenties and back to an altered, barren version of her childhood home, where she must finally come to terms with the fear that being human might mean feeling alone, and wild, and unknowable.

'Emeline Atwood has created a psychologically credible and deeply vulnerable protagonist, more human (and ultimately more likeable) for the way the author refuses to allow victimhood to flatten a character into a category.' FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK
-Cameron Woodhead, The Sydney Morning Herald

'A propulsive and stunning debut ... Readers will be held captive by Lucy's exciting voice.'
-Publishers Weekly, starred review

'Perhaps even more impressive than Atwood's ability to hook readers is how clearly the beginning of A Real Animal outlines the novel's scope and focus on love and violence, nature and instinct, selfhood and family ... A beautiful and unflinching look into pain, healing, human nature, and what it means to be a person ... Sharp, memorable, and wrought with a kind of stark honesty that makes for an instantly compelling character ... A magnificent debut.'
-Devyn Andrews, Chicago Review of Books

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Paperback / softback
ISBN13: 9781761381744
Published: August 2026

Number of pages: 368
Width: 153 mm
Height: 233 mm
Depth: 27 mm

Publisher: Scribe Publications