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Critically Recognized
  • We the Animals by Justin Torres book cover
  • We the Animals by Justin Torres book cover
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We the Animals

by Justin Torres

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Three brothers, one family in motion

$17.50 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Critical praise

    Praised by The Washington Post

    The Washington Post praises Justin Torres as a tremendously gifted writer and commends his personal voice.

AlbakiReads Editorial

Three brothers, one family in motion

We the Animals centers on three brothers growing up in a family shaped by their parents’ volatile relationship and their own fierce attachment to one another. Childhood emerges through shared mischief, domestic routines, and the moments when the boys retreat from their parents’ conflicts. The family’s Brooklyn roots and the different backgrounds of Ma and Paps form part of this portrait, while the book’s arc moves from a child’s sense of belonging toward alienation as he begins to see the wider world. That shift gives the novel’s family story a coming-of-age dimension.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • For readers interested in sibling bonds and family dynamics.
  • For readers drawn to coming-of-age fiction about childhood, belonging, and alienation.
  • For readers interested in families shaped by different cultural backgrounds.

Themes

Brotherhood and family bondsComing of ageBelonging and alienationParental conflictCultural identity

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY

The critically acclaimed debut from the National Book Award-winning author of Blackouts.

In this award-winning, groundbreaking novel, Justin Torres plunges us into the chaotic heart of one family, the intense bonds of three brothers, and the mythic effects of this fierce love on the people we must become.

"A tremendously gifted writer whose highly personal voice should excite us in much the same way that Raymond Carver's or Jeffrey Eugenides's voice did when we first heard it."--The Washington Post

Three brothers tear their way through childhood-- smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn--he's Puerto Rican, she's white--and their love is a serious, dangerous thing that makes and unmakes a family many times. Life in this family is fierce and absorbing, full of chaos and heartbreak and the euphoria of belonging completely to one another.

From the intense familial unity felt by a child to the profound alienation he endures as he begins to see the world, this beautiful novel reinvents the coming-of-age story in a way that is sly and punch-in-the-stomach powerful.

"We the Animals is a dark jewel of a book. It's heartbreaking. It's beautiful. It resembles no other book I've read."--Michael Cunningham

"A fiery ode to boyhood . . . A welterweight champ of a book."--NPR, Weekend Edition

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