The Camel
The camel is the narrator of the collection’s first story, “The Bones.” The camel was imported to Australia from Tenerife a number of years before the story begins, and he has been in Australia since…
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Henry Lawson
In “The Bones” Lawson (a real-life Australian author) joins Mister Mitchell and the camel when they meet in Hungerford. Lawson and Mitchell were childhood friends, which is the reason they give for traveling together—but the…
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Mister Mitchell
Mister Mitchell is the camel’s current owner in “The Bones.” The camel suspects that the man is mad, as Mister Mitchell rides him like “a fancy horse” and inexplicably digs up bones from an…
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The Cat/Kiki-la-Doucette
Kiki is the feline narrator of “Pigeons, a Pony, the Tomcat and I.” The French writer Colette owned Kiki until Kiki was accidentally stranded in the World War I trenches right before the story begins…
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Colette
Colette is Kiki’s owner in “Pigeons, a Pony, the Tomcat and I.” She’s based off of a real-life French writer and never appears in person in the story. Since Colette is such a dedicated…
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The Tomcat
The tomcat in “Pigeons, a Pony, the Tomcat and I” is Kiki’s friend. He used to live with a woman on the same street as Colette, and so he knew of Kiki before…
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Red Peter
The protagonist of “Red Peter’s Little Lady,” Peter is a chimp who, after years of training, now believes he’s human. He walks upright, wears clothes, speaks, and writes. The story is told through his letters…
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Hazel
In “Red Peter’s Little Lady,” Hazel is a chimp in training with Evelyn to become Peter’s wife. Like Peter, Hazel’s training is supposed to make her human. Hazel dictates all her letters to Evelyn—though…
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Frau Evelyn Oberndorff
In “Red Peter’s Little Lady,” Evelyn is Herr Oberndorff’s wife; Red Peter refers to her as Evelyn, while Hazel refers to her as Frau Oberndorff. She’s a German woman who has been put in…
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The Dog
The protagonist of “Hundstage,” the dog is a German Shepherd whose owner is Heinrich Himmler (though the dog refers to his owner only as “Master” throughout the story). The dog is devoted to Himmler and…
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Master/Heinrich Himmler
Himmler is the dog’s master in “Hundstage;” the story only references him by name once. In the dog’s eyes, Himmler is wholly good. He’s an animal lover and cares even for the fish—and he…
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Soul of a Pig
In “Hundstage,” the pig approaches the dog during the dog’s exile in the German forests. Unlike the dog, the pig doesn’t believe in humans’ superiority, nor does he believe that the Nazis are doing anything…
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Sel
The protagonist and narrator of “Somewhere Along the Line the Pearl Would Be Handed to Me,” Sel is a blue mussel who grows up in Hudson Bay. Sel has few defining characteristics, aside from his…
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Muss
Sel’s friend Muss is a blue mussel in “Somewhere Along the Line the Pearl Would Be Handed to Me.” He’s interested in detaching and living life for the experience of it; he doesn’t think…
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Gallos
In “Somewhere Along the Line the Pearl Would Be Handed to Me,” the mussel Gallos is Sel’s best friend. He grew up in Hudson Bay and is a poet. When Muss arrives from the…
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Plautus
The protagonist of “Plautus: A Memoir of My Years on Earth and Last Days in Space,” Plautus is a Russian tortoise. She’s thoughtful, perceptive, and is very concerned with ensuring her own safety. Thus, she’s…
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Countess Alexandra
In “Plautus: A Memoir,” Countess Alexandra is Leo Tolstoy’s adult daughter. The two were very close, so Alexandra is distraught when he dies, three years before the story begins. She takes to her bed…
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Virginia Woolf
The British author Virginia Woolf is Plautus’s third owner in the story “Plautus: A Memoir.” Plautus adores Woolf because Woolf genuinely cares about animals and prioritizes Plautus’s well-being. She’s shocked, for instance, when she…
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George Orwell
Eric Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, inherits Plautus after Virginia dies in “Plautus: A Memoir.” Virginia believed that George had a menagerie and therefore would take good care of a tortoise—but…
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Dr. Yazdovsky
Dr. Yazdovsky is the lead scientist of the Soviet space program in “Plautus: A Memoir.” Plautus finds Dr. Yazdovsky impressively kind—for instance, when the dog Laika ran away the day before she was supposed to…
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Elephant
The narrator of “I, the Elephant, Wrote This,” the elephant is a Mozambican African savanna elephant born in the early 1970s. She and her twin sister are extremely close. Her story follows her life from…
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Sister
In “I, the Elephant, Wrote This,” the elephant’s twin sister grows up with more or less the same interests as the elephant. She doesn’t seem nearly as interested in learning why there aren’t any…
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The Black Bear
In “Telling Fairy Tales,” the black bear is one of only two animals left in the Sarajevo zoo during the siege of the city. He’s hungry, angry, and often cruel. He lives in a pen…
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The Brown Bear
The brown bear is one of the last two animals left in the Sarajevo zoo in “Telling Fairy Tales.” She’s emaciated due to the siege, but she’s always been blind. Her companion in the bear…
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Karol
Karol is a character in the story-within-a-story in “Telling Fairy Tales.” He’s a Polish man whom the Soviets arrested when they invaded Poland, thereby starting World War II. Throughout the story, Karol holds tightly to…
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The Bear Prince
The bear prince is a character in the story-within-a-story in “Telling Fairy Tales.” He begins life as a human prince but turns into a bear sometime around his first birthday—the price’s mother had paid a…
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The Dolphin/Sprout
The dolphin Sprout narrates “A Letter to Sylvia Plath.” Sprout initially isn’t interested in telling her story, since she thinks that humans are notoriously bad at misinterpreting dolphins’ attempts at communication. But she finds…
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Officer Bloomington
Officer Bloomington is Sprout’s trainer in “A Letter to Sylvia Plath.” He begins working with dolphins in the Navy in the late 1970s and quickly forms a close bond with Sprout in particular…
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Officer Mishin
In “A Letter to Sylvia Plath,” Officer Mishin is a Soviet officer who, after the end of the Cold War, comes to work for the U.S. Navy with her dolphin Kostya. She’s small…
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The Parrot/Barnes
Barnes is a parrot and the narrator of “Psittacophile.” Barnes doesn’t share much about himself, aside from insight into the kind of constant care parrots require. He notes that if people care for parrots properly…
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Owner
Barnes’s owner in “Psittacophile” is a middle-aged woman. She experiences a midlife crisis not long before the story begins and, because she seemingly wants proof that her friends and family love and will worry…
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Mitchell’s Father
Mister Mitchell’s father doesn’t appear in person in “The Bones”—the camel learns about him as Henry Lawson tells his story. Mitchell’s father was one of Australia’s many gold seekers, though he only struck gold…
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Fufu
In “Pigeons, a Pony, the Tomcat and I,” Fufu is an old pony that the French take to draw stretchers during World War I. A family with young children used to own her, and they…
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The Briand
The Briand dog in “Pigeons, a Pony, the Tomcat and I” works in the trenches during World War I. He and other dogs are trained to growl very quietly when Germans are coming—and the Briand…
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The Soldier
In “Pigeons, a Pony, the Tomcat and I,” the soldier is a young French soldier whom Kiki befriends and adopts as her stand-in owner. He’s fighting in the trenches in World War I. Kiki fears…
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Herr Hagenbeck
In “Red Peter’s Little Lady,” Herr Hagenbeck owns a “zoo without bars” in Hamburg, Germany. His goal is to give people the opportunity to interact with animals on a personal level, and he’s the…
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Herr Oberndorff
Herr Oberndorff is Evelyn’s husband in “Red Peter’s Little Lady.” Just before the story begins, Oberndorff was called up to fight in World War I but prior to his departure, he trained Peter and…
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Grandfather
In “Hundstage,” the dog’s grandfather was the first German Shepherd dog bred by the German scientist von Stephanitz, who developed the breed’s characteristics by trying out different attitudes and behaviors. Though the dog…
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Herr Kersten
Herr Kersten is Himmler’s masseur in “Hundstage.” During Himmler’s appointments, the dog observes Herr Kersten listen attentively to Himmler’s thoughts on how hunting, one of Herr Kersten’s favorite pastimes, is unethical. Herr Kersten never…
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Professor Wüst
Professor Wüst is Himmler’s spiritual advisor in “Hundstage” and is a real historical figure. He and Himmler have a weekly appointment in which they discuss Hindu philosophy and how to repackage Hindu beliefs for…
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The Veterinarian
In “Hundstage,” the dog’s master, Himmler, calls for a veterinarian to treat the dog when the dog isn’t feeling well. But when the vet manages to calm the dog down and show the…
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Soul of an Auroch
The soul of the auroch is the first ghost that the dog encounters in the German forests after his exile in “Hundstage.” The auroch explains that she’s waiting in the forest for her life mate…
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Souls of Bees
“In Hundstage,” the dog encounters the bees’ souls while wandering through the woods in exile. They tell him that they’re afraid for their master, a kind man who was trying to save them from disease…
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Bluey
In “Somewhere Along the Line the Pearl Would Be Handed to Me,” Bluey is a mussel and former friend of Muss’s who grew up in a West Coast mussel farm. He accompanies Sel…
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Oleg
In “Plautus: A Memoir,” Oleg is the “ornamental hermit” who owns Plautus for the first few decades of her life. The noble family who lives next door to the Tolstoys hires Oleg when he’s only…
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Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard is a real-life British playwright who, in “Plautus: A Memoir,” Plautus adopts in an attempt to get close to either Americans or communists. At the time that Stoppard takes Plautus in, he’s in…
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Veterok and Ugolyok
Veterok and Ugolyok are two Soviet dogs whom Plautus meets during her time with Dr. Yazdovsky in “Plautus: A Memoir.” The dogs survived 22 days in space and the return to earth, which makes them…
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Suleiman
Suleiman is an elephant whose story the elephant in “I, the Elephant, Wrote This” hears often. Born in 1540, Suleiman lived a lavish life in Maximilian II’s court. After Suleiman wrote the words “I, the…
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Castor and Pollux
Castor and Pollux were two zoo elephants; the elephant in “I, the Elephant, Wrote this” grows up hearing their story often. They lived at the Paris Zoo until the Franco-Prussian War, when rich Parisians butchered…
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Daughter
In “I, the Elephant, Wrote This,” the elephant gives birth to a daughter. She grows up with her cousin, the elephant’s nephew, who’s the same age. The elephant adores her daughter, though she’s disturbed…
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Nephew
In “I, the Elephant, Wrote This,” the elephant’s sister gives birth to a son, the elephant’s nephew. He grows up with his cousin, the elephant’s daughter, who’s the same age. The elephant is…
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The Witch
The witch talks regularly with the black bear in “Telling Fairy Tales.” She seems to live in or near the zoo, and she almost always has bread for the bears. The witch is able to…
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Irena
Irena is a character in the story-within-a-story in “Telling Fairy Tales.” She’s a Polish woman whom Karol falls in love with while he’s stationed in the Middle East. Irena tells a story of her own…
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Sylvia Plath
The dolphin Sprout addresses her story, “A Letter to Sylvia Plath,” to the poet Sylvia Plath. She writes to Plath mostly because she appreciates the way that Plath writes about being a mother. In motherhood…
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Ted Hughes
Initially, Sprout thinks she’s going to write her piece for Only the Animals, “A Letter to Sylvia Plath,” about Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath’s husband. However, as she revisits his work, she becomes frustrated…
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Elizabeth Costello
Sprout meets Elizabeth Costello’s soul in the afterlife as she’s trying to write “A Letter to Sylvia Plath.” Costello counsels Sprout to look more closely at Ted Hughes’s writing and not just write…
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Blinky
Blinky is Sprout’s mother in “A Letter to Sylvia Plath.” She takes issue with the way the Navy names their dolphins and finds their silly names offensive. When Officer Bloomington releases a group…
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Kostya
Kostya is Officer Mishin’s dolphin in “A Letter to Sylvia Plath.” Though the American dolphins believe that Kostya can perform all sorts of nefarious tasks, he insists that he’s just as kind and…
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Henri
Henri, an antagonist in “Pigeons, a Pony, the Tomcat and I,” is Colette’s sergeant husband. Henri is a cruel man, and Kiki believes he’d hurt or kill her if given the chance. Henri confirms…
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Minor Characters
Zeriph
Zeriph was the camel’s original handler and was “imported” to Australia along with other men to handle and manage a camel. He died some time before the story begins. While he was alive, he loved the camel dearly and encouraged the camel to be good, proud, and polite.
von Stephanitz
“In Hundstage” (and in real life), von Stephanitz is the German scientist responsible for creating the German Shepherd dog breed. As the dog explains, he believed he was recreating a modern version of “Germanic wolf-dogs.”
The Lobster
In “Somewhere Along the Line the Pearl Would Be Handed to Me,” the lobster meets Muss and Sel in Pearl Harbor. He provides them drugs and trips with them. He dies instantly when Pearl Harbor is bombed.
Leo Tolstoy
Tolstoy was a Russian author; he appears in “Plautus, a Memoir.” The tortoise Plautus desperately wants to be his pet—but when she arrives on his doorstep, she discovers he died three years previously.
The Matriarch
The matriarch is the leader of the elephant herd in “I, the Elephant, Wrote This.” She’s old and wise, and she encourages the elephant and her sister to stop idealizing death.
Owner’s Ex-Husband
The owner in “Psittacophile” marries her husband 30 years before her move to Beirut. Though not a bad man, he doesn’t think he should be expected to reciprocate affection or interest when the owner expresses it, which fuels the owner’s deep desire to be needed.
Owner’s Daughter
The owner’s daughter in “Psittacophile” is an independent young woman who doesn’t support the owner’s choice to deal with her midlife crisis by moving to Beirut.
Marty
In “Psittacophile,” Marty is an expat teaching in Beirut who enters into a relationship with Barnes’s owner. Barnes doesn’t say much about Marty, except that, like the owner, he’s a former New Yorker who thinks himself superior to everyone else.
Missy
In “Pigeons, a Pony, the Tomcat and I,” Missy was Colette’s former lover; she regularly dressed as a man.
Blondi
Blondi is the dog’s littermate in “Hundstage.” She becomes Hitler’s dog and eventually becomes famous amongst other German Shepherds.
Leonard
Leonard is Virginia Woolf’s good-natured husband in “Plautus: A Memoir.”
Officer
In “A Letter to Sylvia Plath,” Officer is Sprout’s daughter. She enters training to serve in the Navy alongside her mother and even serves in the same unit.
Toby-Chien
In “Pigeons, a Pony, the Tomcat and I,” Toby-Chien is Colette's bulldog. Toby-Chien is friendly with Kiki, and doesn't mind when Kiki gets a lot of Colette's attention.
