A dog falls from a tree, capsizing a kayak and throwing its occupants into the river.
Parked in by furious rich people, mid-divorce, a man misses his lunchtime gambling session.
All the girls named Ella form a diagonal across the teacher’s new classroom.
Diseased cattle burn in fields around the country - it is a cameraman’s role to frame the images for TV.

“Cohen has a marvellous command of the nuances and intricacies of language, its connotations, gaps, and slippery hold on what we might conceive of as reality. His dialogue is packed with sardonic wit and the nonchalant sword-crossings of domestic life … Often a new kind of normal asserts itself by the story's end …
“The author has a clear-eyed, unsentimental view of human frailty … The final story, ‘Attributed to Jeremiah’, is a powerful piece with lines many poets would be proud of. ‘English is a dismemberingly cruel idiom,’ the narrator tells is, ‘and it fits this world too well.’ ”
Australian Book Review

“There is delight to be had in reading a book so relentlessly ambitious, one with such a strong sense of play.
“The humour is dry and often mischievous: ‘I'd previously had a rat issue, and occasionally referred to it when a context could be extended to contain rodentism, such as any mention of Norway or feral animals’. is a powerful piece with lines many poets would be proud of.
“The angle at which Cohen approaches a story allows the reader an unusual entry point, showing perpspectives we might otherwise not be afforded. Each sentence brings with it a story of its own … The writing is animated and immediate.
“Humans behaving badly are seen in direct contrast to the animals depicted. May we all achieve the contentment and quiet introspection of a frog philosophiser who muses, ‘My parents lived on garbage juice … and they were neither happy nor unhappy.’ ”
The Australian

“A young man adopts a dog and unintentionally reveals the cracks in his family; a couple bicker over an undesired meal; a person slides slowly into insanity as a creature – or are there many? – invades his peripheral vision. Bernard Cohen’s bold new collection of short fiction, When I Saw the Animal, is pervaded by a sense of something uneasy pulsing just below the veneer of normality … Australian short fiction with a contemporary and unique voice.”
Books and Publishing

“When I Saw the Animal is playful, inventive and bursting with insight into contemporary life and the ways we cope (or sometimes don't).
It's a real joy to spend time in Cohen's sometimes weird, sometimes achingly tender, always thrillingly imaginative world.”
Emily Maguire, author of An Isolated Incident