The Last Animal

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In this playful and resonant novel, a single mother and her two teenage daughters embark on a wild scientific experiment that leads to self-discovery. Jane, a serious scientist, is part of a groundbreaking project aimed at “de-extincting” the woolly mammoth and is sent to Siberia to search for ancient DNA. However, her two bored daughters are along for the ride. Fifteen-year-old Eve is sharp-tongued and unafraid to challenge the male scientists, while thirteen-year-old Vera, who carries the emotional weight of their family, longs for the comforts of home in Berkeley. When the sisters uncover a perfectly preserved four-thousand-year-old baby mammoth, their find disrupts Jane’s standing at the lab and creates tension with her colleagues. Faced with the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated field, Jane decides to take matters into her own hands. The story follows their journey from Siberia to California, Iceland, and Italy, exploring the complexities of imagination on a changing planet, the struggles of motherhood in science, and the joy of sharing extraordinary discoveries with family, even teenagers.