Thalia Field : Experimental Animals

“Thalia Field has now composed what very well might be her life’s work—a tragic, comical, & utterly fascinating tale of a marriage that vividly encapsulates not only the origins of experimental medicine, but an entire age that spirited experiments in literature, science, engineering, film, etc. It’s nothing less than a history—gorgeously fictional, purposefully essayistic–of how we got where we are.”—John D’Agata “Stemming from a through-line of marital discord in the household of the great French vivisector Claude Bernard . . . this compelling tale is made up largely of excerpts and quotations . . . a beautiful and thought-provoking collage of . . . rescued history & a sobering tribute to some of its victims.”—Karen Joy Fowler