Which is why The Last Animal, the latest novel by Ramona Ausubel, soars where so many other books about family dynamics simply coast. Granted, Ausubel's tale has a very recognizable family nucleus ...

NPR's Scott Simon interviews author Ramona Ausubel about her novel, "The Last Animal," about a family finding solace, after tragedy, in a scientific expedition to the Arctic. Eve, who is 15 ...