Comparative Literature PhD Candidate Lindsay Stern has published her first novel

Stern was initially inspired to write The Study of Animal Languages while in college, when she entered her professor’s office and noticed that, although no one was speaking, the lie detector he kept in jest on the cabinet across from his desk was lighting up. The machine was picking up the melody of an apparently dishonest bird outside the window.

She was struck by our limited understanding of the meanings of these birdsongs—noises we tend to tune out as meaningless—and, by extension, our sometimes absurdly limited interpretations of our own language. The result is the story of Ivan and Prue, a married couple of professors—purported experts in communication—who cannot seem to communicate with one another.

Named one of the most anticipated books of 2019 by Vanity Fair, Southern Living, and Lithub

Named one of the most anticipated books of February by NYLON and Bustle

“An unabashedly smart philosophical exploration and affecting psychological portrait of the strains of a marriage. Finely wrought, marvelously dramatic, riveting—a debut of stunning maturity.” 
—Ayana Mathis, author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

“Lindsay Stern’s astute new novel…brilliantly captures the fragility of our emotional bonds, but also their ability to weather difficult terrain; there is dry humor here that is particularly welcome when taken on that darkest and sharpest of feelings: love.” —NYLON

“[E]xplore[s] the limitations of speech and the ways in which these plague even our most intimate relationships. At a time when communication failures seem to have reached an all-time high…a reminder that even experts are human, and that we’re all just speaking one awfully confusing animal language.” 
—Vanity Fair