E book excerpt: “The Last Animal” by Ramona Ausubel

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Ramona Ausubel, the award-winning creator of “Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty,” returns with “The Last Animal” (Riverhead Books), her buoyant tackle “Jurassic Park,” in regards to the shocking discovery of a wonderfully preserved, 4,000-year-old child mammoth.

Read an excerpt beneath. 

“The Last Animal” by Ramona Ausubel

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“I really feel like digging.”

So they dug. Eve dug in a single route and Vera dug within the different and the factor was lengthy and as thick as a small tree trunk. It had pores and pores and skin, and it had fur. Vera got here to a curve and adopted the form downward till she discovered the tip, the place there was a gap. “It’s a trunk,” she stated. “It’s a trunk, Evie.”

They dug quicker, each on Eve’s aspect, hoping the trunk was connected to a physique, an entire mammoth frozen upright on this spot.

“If there is a physique we should always go get assist,” Eve stated.

But when the trunk ended extra rapidly than they anticipated and the physique connected was small and so they realized it was a frozen child, it felt like a rescue mission greater than a discovery and they didn’t cease however dug till their fingers have been soaked and frozen. It was good. It was unhappy and delightful and ideal. The dimension of a big canine. “Pull,” Eve stated, and so they reached their arms across the again, Vera on the entrance finish and Eve on the rear and so they hugged it, this chilly physique, and so they pulled laborious, bracing towards the cliffside till it got here free with a sucking sound and each women fell backward. The mammoth smelled of the beginnings of rot. It was beginning to thaw. Vera pushed it off herself and stood. She was elated and disgusted and there was a rampage in her chest. “Is this taking place?” she requested. It seemed just like the animal may at any time open its massive eyes.

Excerpted from “The Last Animal” by Ramona Ausubel. Copyright © 2023 by Ramona Ausubel. All rights reserved. No a part of this excerpt could also be reproduced or reprinted with out permission in writing from the writer.

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“The Last Animal” by Ramona Ausubel

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