“Within each story is a mystical communion between animals and human beings as they struggle for equilibrium in their lives. . . . Tinti’s stories serve up an anomalous blend of psychologically muddled and intuitive characters as sympathetic as they are flawed. These stories not only entertain, they startle, they illuminate.”

—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Exhibiting a range and control unusual for a young writer, in Animal Crackers Hannah Tinti offers nearly a dozen tales: sweetly macabre, adroitly surprising. You’d be crackers yourself not to indulge.”

—Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, Mirror Mirror, and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“In this marvelously strange debut, Tinti welcomes her reader into a world in which zoo animals stage protests, rabbits fly from third-story windows wearing capes, and stuffed black bears stalk the museum muralist....Fans of Aimee Bender’s dreamy collection The Girl in the Flammable Skirt can find a new friend in Tinti.”

—Entertainment Weekly

“[Tinti’s] style recalls Flannery O’Connor; the stories embedded with incidental Gothic details . . . [and] considerable writing skill.”

— The Independent (UK)

“Almost every piece in this volume will interrupt your thoughts and invade your sleep [but] it is highly recommended.”

—Library Journal (starred review)

“Under Tinti’s pen, the seemingly mundane is disrupted by the suddenly shocking. . . . Animal Crackers is a gruesome yet surprisingly captivating read. Each bone-chilling plot pulls us in, leaving us unable to renounce the glimpse of our dark side that Tinti so expertly portrays.”

— Columbia Spectator

“These are marvelous stories. Hard-edged, big-hearted, they glitter and gleam with a rare clarity of vision. Hannah Tinti is a generous and enormously gifted writer. She will make you see the world differently.”

—Dani Shapiro, author of Family History and Slow Motion

“Ambitious and imaginative.”

—Pages magazine

“Animal Crackers’ stories are compelling and beautifully shaped on the surface, but they reward further analysis; the more complex narratives resemble fractal patterns, with neatly crafted metaphors that repeat on several levels. . . . A terrific debut that weighs down airy, high-concept thought pieces with animal flesh and human blood alike.”

—The Onion

“Hannah Tinti is who you want around a campfire or on a long road trip. The stories in Animal Crackers will make your head spin, your skin crawl, your heart jump.”

—Helen Ellis, author of Eating the Cheshire Cat

“Tinti boldly parses primal emotions in her stealthy short stories, which, like cats’ paws, conceal weapons of great precision....Tinti’s fables are dark and wily, grim yet morbidly fascinating exposures of both our animal selves and our uniquely human psychoses.”

—Booklist

Animal Crackers

animal crackers