Gregory Heath’s brilliant first novel is about Michael, a highly regarded taxidermist, whose personal life is at a standstill. With a string of failed relationships behind him, he dedicates his days to work and his nights to alcohol. When love arrives in the shape of a beautiful young art student, he needs someone to confide in. But the only person he can talk to is the mother he lost as a child; until an unexpected friend challenges him to face his demons.

The Entire Animal is a moving meditation on the harm that is done when people cannot communicate with each other. Life and death; in nature’s world and ours; hover on the edges of every page, lending to the novel their beauty and pain.

Gregory Heath was born in Derbyshire in 1967. He is widely published in the small press; his poetry, short stories and essays having appeared in magazines such as Tears in the Fence, Iota, and Poetic Licence. Staple have published him on a number of occasions and recently featured him in their Alt-gen collection showcasing the best small press writers of the last decade.