An interesting Granta anthology, ostensibly on the subject of beasts but only the first 5 stories are directly about animals. My favourite was Paul Auster's 'Mr Bones', a story about a homeless man's dog accompanying him on his dying pilgrimage to his former English teacher's home. 'Mr Bones' is written with such elegance and sadness without ever becoming pathetic, as the dog reflects on what he knows of his person's life and how he came to be a homeless wanderer. Hilary Mantel writes about the family's dogs, Gary Ennsa powerful piece about a crow that he and another boy teach to speak, Gordon Grice on bats and Sam Toperoff a story written from a tarantula's point of view. All are thought provoking.
The rest of the anthology contains stories by Jackie Kay, Deborah Levy, T Coraghessan Boyle, John Barth, Joyce Carol Oates, Anwar Iqbal, Martin Amis and Hans Magnes Enzenberger, with a reportage piece by Simon Norfolk and Michael Ignatieff on the Rwandan massacre.
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