We The Animals, Justin Torres
We The Animals, Justin Torres
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We The Animals
A Novel

Author: Justin Torres

Narrator: Frankie J. Alvarez

Unabridged: 3 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Mariner Books

Published: 10/20/2026

Synopsis

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURYThe critically acclaimed debut from the National Book Award-winning author of Blackouts.In this award-winning, groundbreaking novel, Justin Torres plunges us into the chaotic heart of one family, the intense bonds of three brothers, and the mythic effects of this fierce love on the people we must become.“A tremendously gifted writer whose highly personal voice should excite us in much the same way that Raymond Carver’s or Jeffrey Eugenides’s voice did when we first heard it."—The Washington PostThree brothers tear their way through childhood— smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn—he’s Puerto Rican, she’s white—and their love is a serious, dangerous thing that makes and unmakes a family many times. Life in this family is fierce and absorbing, full of chaos and heartbreak and the euphoria of belonging completely to one another.From the intense familial unity felt by a child to the profound alienation he endures as he begins to see the world, this beautiful novel reinvents the coming-of-age story in a way that is sly and punch-in-the-stomach powerful."We the Animals is a dark jewel of a book. It’s heartbreaking. It’s beautiful. It resembles no other book I’ve read.”—Michael Cunningham"A fiery ode to boyhood . . . A welterweight champ of a book."—NPR, Weekend Edition

About Justin Torres

JUSTIN TORRES is the author of Blackouts, which won the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Lambda Literary award, and the Southern California Book Award. A 2024 Guggenheim Fellow, he’s also received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center. His first novel, We the Animals was a national bestseller and adapted into a feature film. He lives Los Angeles, and is an associate professor of English at UCLA.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Will on September 11, 2024

Harsh, raw, powerful, uplifting, depressing, disappointing, brilliant. This tale of three brothers and their parents is told in the form of 19 chapters or short stories and it will generate a response. Justin Torres - image from WPSU at Penn State There are times when the writing seems forced, clum......more

Goodreads review by switterbug (Betsey) on October 19, 2023

I usually find something to commend on most every book I read, some aspect that strikes the right note. Sadly, this is one of two books I’ve read (to completion) in the past five years(that was hailed and cooed by the titans of publishing)that I thought was good on social justice but poor on story/w......more

Goodreads review by Fabian on October 26, 2020

Ok. I get it. I get why three people TOTAL have recommended this one to me. It is the shortest type of experience, the most meaningful for its inherent scarcity-- a novella. It can be read during one dull hour, perhaps two. This way, the author is assured at least ONE TRUE reading of his work, which......more

Goodreads review by Roxane on April 19, 2013

This is a gorgeous book with fierce ideas. The family is exceptionally rendered and race and sexuality are approached in new ways here. Torres does a fine job of capturing the rambunctious energy of young boys being raised rough by parents who don't quite get it right with their children or each oth......more

Goodreads review by Karen on February 15, 2025

This is a very raw and powerful novella, about three mixed race brothers in an impoverished household in Upstate New York. The narrator is the youngest brother and is unnamed throughout the story They are wild, hungry boys who are often left untended .. the dad can’t hold a job and goes out messing a......more

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