It’s Hard to Be an Animal

Riffing on Doctor Doolittle, the exciting and hilarious debut from Isaacs follows a 28-year-old New Yorker who suddenly develops the ability to hear what animals are saying. Henry Parsons is on a first date in Central Park with a woman named Molly when he hears a magnolia warbler tell the couple to “fuck off.” Henry is the only one who can hear the bird, and soon he’s hearing other animals: the betta fish his housemate owns, two dogs talking while he’s waiting for a bus, and two rats conversing in the subway about dead human bodies being dumped in an abandoned tunnel. The rats’ story leads Henry to leave an anonymous tip with the police, and he tells Molly what he heard, omitting the source. She proposes they search for the body, and when they do, late one night, they overhear two men with Scottish brogues dumping another corpse. Henry loses his smartphone as he and Molly flee, causing the pair to worry the men will find it. Isaacs, who ushers the mystery to a surprising final twist, effectively combines absurd humor with literary references (evoking Kafka, Henry shudders to “imagine the weltschmerz of a cockroach”), and it’s satisfying to watch Henry evolve from milquetoast to man of action. This is a hoot. (May)