The Island of Last Things
By Emma Sloley
Can you imagine a world where you look up to the sky and see the silhouette of a bird pass overhead and you're hit with such a sense of awe that you stop in your tracks, totally gobsmacked? That's this world. The climate catastrophe and levels of pollution have reached levels such that hardly any animals exist in the world anymore. Not even birds. Not even livestock. Any remaining "specimens" have been relegated to zoos, but now zoos are closing left and right too -- as the animals succumb to loneliness and disease from malnutrition and zoo officials succumb to cartels illicitly and violently stealing animals for their own entertainment. So when a nondescript, backlit bird catches your eye, you definitely take note.
The book explores whether it's better to keep animals caged and protected with the hopes that reproduction is possible, or better to let them live out their remaining short lives in the wild with almost guaranteed extinction ahead of them. There's a big twist at the end that may offer a partial solution. (I won't spoil it for you.)
The book also offers the very smallest teeniest tiniest bit of hope, but it's more of an inkling or a wish that there is another option. It's never confirmed. Frankly, I think it's just to reassure readers, but we shouldn't be reassured. We should be taking action every day to prevent this dystopian future.
Tags:
climate fiction animals resistance black market Alcatraz San Francisco Paris pollution climate breakdown conservation gift from A owned272 pages
Published Aug 11, 2025 by Flatiron Books
Fiction - Literary
Fiction - Animals
Fiction - Nature & the Environment
Fiction - Dystopian