Animal Behaviour

***Highly Commended in the Ellipsis Zine Flash Collection Contest***


A mother watches her son grow from a sweet child into a troubled adult...

A jilted lover finds hope one magical evening...

A cobbler breathes life back into a pair of lucky shoes...


Animal Behaviour titles each of its short stories with animal facts, but the experiences they describe are very much human. The cast of characters is diverse but the world they inhabit is universal: one in which all of us will recognise fragments of our own lives in some form, an echo of our shared humanity.


This second edition contains six new stories, unpublished anywhere else.


“Bold in voice, rich in metaphor, daring in approach, Animal Behaviour is a startling debut. In these very short tales, Amanda McLeod demonstrates an uncanny understanding of life and the living. By turns strange, beautiful, aching and transcendent, these stories and the humans how inhabit them will leave their mark on your mind and heart long past the final page. Highly recommended.”

—Kathy Fish, author of Wild Life: Collected Works from 2003-2018