Lady into Fox by David Garnett

This is a short and very weird novella, which is about exactly what it says on the label, a woman who randomly, without any reason being discovered then or later, turns into a fox. Her husband, who passionately adores her, abandons normal life to spend all his time with her. The story is told in a really odd, sort of seventeenth-century style (which the woodcuts by Garnett's wife reinforce), a bit cold and distant and strange. My favourite thing about this book was the way it conveys the Sylvia's transformation; at first she attempts to act as much like a human being as possible, but then she slowly starts forgetting what it is like to be human, and gives way to foxy instincts. When at first she transforms, Garnett doesn't give much description of her as an animal, but as she starts changing, she is described as more and more fox-like, with more and more detail of her fur, her smell, her movements, in very vivid descriptions that make her transformation more and more palpable and immediate. Other than that, I was mostly really puzzled by the book and not sure what to make of it. It seems both transparent and mysterious.