The author of We The Animals talks about his debut novel

In a fascinating and insightful interview, Justin Torres talks about writing an alternative coming of age story, and how becoming an individual is sometimes a loss.

“I was ‘working on the fringes of society’, as I like to say, and the writing teacher said, ‘you’re not going to be cute forever, what are you going to do?’ It was what I needed to hear.”

Justin Torres

Justin Torres reads from his book We The Animals at Gay’s the Word, 22 March 2012.

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Granta • March 1, 2012 [HB] 144 pages • Granta • March 1, 2012 [HB]

The editor is impressed and moved by Justin Torres’ debut We The Animals.

“We The Animals is, in the Granta edition, as beautiful a book physically as it is emotionally.”

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544 pages • Faber & Faber • April 3rd, 2008 [HB]

Tim Bennett-Goodman is delighted by the exceptional Adam Mars-Jones.

While a bald outline of the plot would hardly be calculated to send one rushing out to buy the book, to describe the memoir of a bed-ridden disabled boy growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s as a gripping read might seem hyperbolic, if not actually a breach of the Trade Descriptions Act.