Ray Nayler Discusses New Novel Palaces of the Crow at National Zoo as 2022 Breakout Framed Animal Communication
Updated
Updated · Vox.com · May 22
Ray Nayler Discusses New Novel Palaces of the Crow at National Zoo as 2022 Breakout Framed Animal Communication
1 articles · Updated · Vox.com · May 22
Ray Nayler used a visit to Washington’s National Zoo to discuss Palaces of the Crow, a new historical novel in which crows help teenagers survive near Vilnius during the 1940s German invasion of the Soviet Union.
The book extends themes from his 2022 novel The Mountain in the Sea and 2024 Hugo-winning The Tusks of Extinction: animal minds, species-specific communication and empathy built through attempts to understand nonhuman intelligence.
At the zoo, Nayler argued that communication does not require full mutual comprehension; even partial signals—from a Kori bustard’s display to a hare’s eye contact with a fox—can create cooperation, restraint or care.
He tied that view to Peter Kropotkin’s 1902 Mutual Aid, portraying birds, especially crows, as social, adaptive creatures that often thrive at the edges of human society and damage.
The broader claim of Palaces of the Crow, Nayler said, is that recognizing animals in their irreducible difference can widen human empathy and strengthen an ethic of collective care.
Amidst WWII's horrors, can a pact with crows reveal humanity's true nature?
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