Floyd Flanagan

Heifer Floyd Flanagan

As uncompromising as Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal and George Orwell's Animal Farm, Floyd Flanagan's satirical, animal liberation novel, Heifer, has a simple premise, if you want to understand the plight of millions of animals, bred, fattened, and slaughtered by our hi-tech farming and food processing industries, imagine yourself changing places with the animals. Heifer reads like a fast-paced road movie seen from her point of view. The saga is a hybrid of genres: a who-done-it mystery and love story wrapped in science fiction.

Adolescent Heifer's life on her father's Humane Farm is as ordinary as French fries, but what goes on down in the sheds is gnawing on this young cow's conscience. Something is very wrong and won't let her rest. But just what the problem is seems hard to pin down. The thousands of children brought into the world on her father's spread are clean, well fed, and meticulously cared for. The humane childstock industry is a far cry from the clawing and screaming at slaughter in days gone by, and when the little ones are harvested they don't feel a thing.

Breeding day arrives and Heifer finds herself confronted by a young woman clamped in the insemination rack. Captured by her piercing stare Heifer understands that she and the girl are essentially the same. She realizes that she must do something, but what that is leaves her entirely at a loss.

Brain softening prions have made the leap from humans to bovines and an epidemic of mad cow disease is sweeping the land. Heifer must save herself and the children. Escape is imperative. But escape to where? The plot propels the hero and a band of refugee animals and humans through an upside down world of exploited creatures. Read this novel and your relationship with animals will never be the same.