It's Hard to Be an Animal

For readers of Shark Heart and Hollow Kingdom, a funny, magical, and tender novel following a lonely, conflict-averse man whose sudden ability to understand animals sends him on a wild romp around NYC, and ultimately helps him discover his own voice.

Strolling through Central Park on a blind date with the hilarious, irrepressible Molly Bent, Henry Parsons is feeling hopeful for the first time in years ... when a migratory warbler, the sweetest of little birds, tells him to f*** off.

A gentle soul, troubled enough by the unkindness of fellow humans, Henry tries to brush the moment aside as a hallucination. But soon he's hearing voices everywhere: dogs mocking their owners, sparrows fat-shaming each other, police horses profiling attendees at a street fair -- even a pontificating, misogynistic snake.

The man who never speaks up for himself is now besieged by animals who do. When (inevitably) he overhears three rats discussing a corpse in the New York subway, he lets it slip to Molly. She's keen to investigate, and Henry's desperate for a second date, so he follows her nervously into an abandoned tunnel under the West Fourth Street Station. There, sure enough, they find a body ... and the murderers find them. Cue the most terrifying week of this cautious man's life.

Inspiration and courage arrive from a pair of feuding betta fish and his neighbor's yapping Pomeranian -- whose unexpected wisdom helps Henry find the courage to assert himself at last.

Author: Robert Isaacs
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 05/19/2026
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 8.22h x 5.52w x 0.72d
ISBN: 9781538773284


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 03/09/2026
Booklist 03/01/2026
Shelf Awareness 01/01/0001

About the Author
Robert Isaacs has survived an eventful life. He has escaped an angry hippo in the Okavango Delta, dodged tear gas on the Mount of Olives, roasted marshmallows over cooling lava in the Guatemalan highlands, and been run over by a boat off the west coast of Australia. In his youth he supported himself as a juggler and unicyclist on the streets of San Francisco before turning to music; over the course of thirty years he conducted everywhere from Carnegie Hall to the Cook Islands, released a dozen CDs, and earned a Grammy nomination. It's Hard to Be an Animal is his first novel.