# On Animals - Hardcover

by **Susan Orlean** (Author)

**NATIONAL BESTSELLER**

**"Magnificent." --_The_ _New York Times_ \* "Beguiling, observant, and howlingly funny." --_San Francisco Chronicle_ \* "Spectacular." --_Star Tribune_ (Minneapolis) \* "Full of astonishments." --_The_ _Boston Globe_**

**Susan Orlean--the beloved _New Yorker_ staff writer hailed as "a national treasure" by _The_ _Washington Post_ and the author of the _New York Times_ bestseller _The Library Book_\--gathers a lifetime of musings, meditations, and in-depth profiles about 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.

### Author Biography

Susan Orlean has been a staff writer at _The New Yorker_ since 1992. She is the _New York Times_ bestselling author of seven books, including _The Library Book, Rin Tin Tin, Saturday Night,_ and _The Orchid Thief_, which was made into the Academy Award-winning film _Adaptation_. She lives with her family and her animals in Los Angeles and may be reached at SusanOrlean.com and on Twitter @SusanOrlean.

**Number of Pages:** 256

**Dimensions:** 0.9 x 9.47 x 6.83 IN

**Illustrated:** Yes

**Publication Date:** October 12, 2021

## Details

- **Price:** 28.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 28.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- On Animals - Hardcover

---

> Source: [Smart supply deals](https://smartsupplydeals.com/products/on-animals-hardcover)
> Updated: 2026-07-23
