Virtual Event: Susan Orlean

Harvard Book Store's virtual event series and Mass Humanities welcome SUSAN ORLEAN—the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Orchid Thief, Rin Tin Tin, and The Library Book—for a discussion of her latest book, On Animals. She will be joined in conversation by MARY ROACH, the acclaimed, bestselling author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law.

Ticketing

All tickets include a hardcover copy of On Animals. U.S. shipping also included. Books bundled with tickets will be shipped out after the event. Please note: we are unable to ship internationally.

About On Animals

“How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages,” writes Susan Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she’s been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals, she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career.

These stories consider a range of creatures—the household pets we dote on, the animals we raise to end up as meat on our plates, the creatures who could eat us for dinner, the various tamed and untamed animals we share our planet with who are central to human life. In her own backyard, Orlean discovers the delights of keeping chickens. In a different backyard, in New Jersey, she meets a woman who has twenty-three pet tigers—something none of her neighbors knew about until one of the tigers escapes. In Iceland, the world’s most famous whale resists the efforts to set him free; in Morocco, the world’s hardest-working donkeys find respite at a special clinic. We meet a show dog and a lost dog and a pigeon who knows exactly how to get home.

Equal parts delightful and profound, enriched by Orlean’s stylish prose and precise research, these stories celebrate the meaningful cross-species connections that grace our collective existence.

Praise for On Animals

“Delightful . . . Another winner featuring the author’s trademark blend of meticulous research and scintillating writing.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Entertaining and informative . . . Orlean’s prose dazzles . . . Animal lovers will find much to savor.” —Publishers Weekly