Author:Robert M Sapolsky,Mike Chamberlain
Brought to you by Penguin.
Discover this remarkable account of twenty-one years in remote Kenya with a troop of Savannah baboons from the New York Times bestselling author of Behave.
Brooklyn-born Robert Sapolsky grew up wishing he could live in the primate diorama in the Museum of Natural History. At school he wrote fan letters to primatologists and even taught himself Swahili, all with the hope of one day joining his primate brethren in Africa. But when, at the age of twenty-one, Sapolky's dream finally comes true he discovers that the African bush bears little resemblance to the tranquillity of a museum.
This is the story of the next twenty-one years as Sapolsky slowly infiltrates and befriends a troop of Savannah baboons. Alone in the middle of the Serengeti with no electricity, running water or telephone, and surviving countless scams, culinary atrocities and a surreal kidnapping, Sapolsky becomes ever more enamoured with his adopted baboon troop - unique and compelling characters in their own right - and he returns to them summer after summer, until tragedy finally prevails.
Exhilarating, hilarious and poignant, A Primate's Memoir is a uniquely honest window into the coming-of-age of one of our greatest scientific minds.
'One of the best scientist-writers of our time' Oliver Sacks
'A Primate's Memoir is the closest the baboon is likely to come - and it's plenty close enough - to having its own Iliad' New York Times Review of Books
© Robert M Sapolsky 2001 (P) Penguin Audio 2021
One of the most engrossing, exhilarating and irreverent books on Africa and its wildlife ever published
—— Financial TimesSmart, stylish, distinctive... A magnificent tale of morality among the hamfisted machiavellians
—— IndependentSplendidly written and entertaining... ACE. Buy this book now
—— ScotsmanFlies along like a well-paced and finely crafted novel...[giving] us a cast of characters as memorably colorful as any that Dickens ever created
—— NewsweekOne of the best scientist-writers of our time
—— Oliver SacksVery funny... Bill Bryson turned naturalist
—— Conde Nast TravellerThis engrossing account of Robert Sapolsky's life in science...is brilliantly informative...and heartbreakingly acute
—— Norman Rush, author of 'Mating''Deisseroth is a genuine pioneer, whose prize-winning research is re-defining our understanding of the brain... a stunning work from a relatively young man set on revealing the threads connecting our most pressing personal concerns with our timeless biological inheritance... Deisseroth has the imagination and literary gift to make it speak to all of us'
—— Literary Review'Karl Deisseroth's imaginative narrative flows effortlessly... There is a first love of reading and writing and hints of a literary imagination that draws on James Joyce and Toni Morrison... Deisseroth endeavors to find an emotive language for the psychiatric patients he meets. He accomplishes this by weaving together... psychiatric knowledge, technology, and imagination. These together free him to write poetically... His narratives are always sensitive... an admixture of fact and fiction, reality and imagination, damage and desire'
—— Science'[Deisseroth's] scintillating and moving analysis of the human brain and emotions, based on observations of his patients, proves he is not exaggerating. It is also a great read'
—— Nature'I've known Karl as a colleague, a scientist whose discoveries in the lab have been breathtaking and revolutionary. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised to discover he's also a stunning writer, his words guiding us to a profound understanding of the nature of human emotions, seamlessly invoking Ovid and optogenetics, Borges and basal ganglia as he takes on this journey. Projections is a tour de force'
—— Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone'Karl Deisseroth intertwines neuroscience and human stories in a way that is altogether new: technical, lyrical, and deeply compassionate all at once. Through sharing what he's learned as a groundbreaking scientist and a psychiatrist caring for patients with severe illness, he reveals glimmer of what makes us human. This is a crucial book for anyone who loves science, anyone who loves someone suffering from a disorder of the brain, or anyone who, like so many of us, loves both'
—— Lucy Kalanithi'The writing in this exploration of what causes human emotion at a cellular level is extraordinarily good, inviting comparisons with the work of Oliver Sacks and Henry Marsh' (Editor's Choice)
—— Bookseller'Deisseroth, professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, melds the personal with the clinical in his masterful debut on how the human mind works and what can be learned when it goes awry ... writing with abundant empathy, Deisseroth brings his patients' struggles to life as he educates about both neuroscience and humanity. This is a must-read'
—— Publishers Weekly'Unique and utterly riveting, Projections braids together three skeins from Karl Deisseroth's life: his painstaking clinical experience as a psychiatrist, dedicated to helping patients; his ingenious inventions in biotechnology that have ushered in waves of new insights into how brains work; and his life as a humble and caring social human being with a gift for crafting a spellbinding chronicle. This is a masterpiece written for each and every one of us'
—— Patricia Churchland, author of Conscience'Karl Deisseroth is already known around the world as a groundbreaking scientist who has pioneered dazzling new techniques for investigating the brain. In this enthralling masterpiece of a book, he demonstrates that he is also a perceptive psychiatrist, as well as a spellbinding writer who beautifully connects the inner feelings within all human beings to deep insights from modern psychiatry and neuroscience'
—— Robert Lefkowitz, Nobel Laureate and author of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Stockholm'We are living during a revolution in our understanding of the human brain, and Karl Deisseroth has been at the forefront of these advances. This magisterial work shows that not only is he one of our leading scientists, but also a gifted writer and storyteller. With precise yet luminous prose, he merges stories of cutting-edge neuroscience with a deep reverence for his patients' humanity'
—— Neil Shubin, author of Some Assembly Required'Deisseroth writes of heartbreaking and desperate medical cases with a doctor's knowledge, and a novelist's skill for narrative. I could not put this book down'
—— May-Britt Moser, Nobel LaureateGorgeous...A personal reckoning that cuts right to the heart. This beautiful novel is an ode-if not an elegy-to an endangered planet and the people and places we love
—— Literary HubA good nautical adventure...The Last Migration moves at a fast, exciting clip, motored as much by love for 'creatures that aren't human' as by outrage at their destruction
—— The Wall Street JournalAn ode to our disappearing natural world
—— NewsweekYou can practically hear the glaciers cracking to pieces and the shrill yelps of the circling terns
—— VultureThere's a brooding lushness to this novel's prose that belies its stark premise... this keening lament of an adventure is compelling.
—— Hephzibah Anderson , ObserverA fascinating hybrid of nature writing and dystopian fiction... gripping... by merging cli-fi and nature writing, the novel powerfully demonstrates the spiritual and emotional costs of environmental destruction
—— The EconomistI’m a sucker for a complicated narrator, and Franny Stone might be the queen of them all. In this tantalizingly beautiful epic, Franny’s life has been marked by secrets and loss, and so she turns to where she cannot reach: the skies
—— Lauren Puckett , Elle USGripping, tender and beautifully done. This novel is as intimate as it is urgent—you emerge thrilled and dazed, but also galvanized to save the planet
—— Anna Funder, author of StasilandVisceral and haunting...This novel's prose soars with its transporting descriptions of the planet's landscapes and their dwindling inhabitants, and contains many wonderful meditations on our responsibilities to our earthly housemates...The Last Migration is a nervy and well-crafted novel, one that lingers long after its voyage is over
—— The New York Times Book ReviewDreamy, elegiac... both an adventure story and a piece of speculative climate fiction, constantly slipping between a kind of literary realism and more magical elements, between moments of domestic drama and sweeping epic... an aching and poignant book, and one that's pressing in its timeliness... It's also a book about love, about trying to understand and accept the creatureliness that exists within our selves, and what it means to be a human animal, that we might better accommodate our own wildness within the world.
—— Fiona Wright , Guardian AustraliaGutting and gorgeous, The Last Migration is an astounding meditation on love, trauma, and the cost of survival. With soulful prose and deep empathy, Charlotte McConaghy weaves parallel stories of a woman and a world on the brink of devastation, but never without hope. Equal parts love letter and dirge, this is a true force of a book that I read holding my breath from its start to its symphonic finish
—— Julia Fine, author of What Should Be WildAt a time when it feels like we're at the end of the world, this novel about a different kind of end of the world serves as both catharsis and escape
—— Harper's Bazaar USThis novel is enchanting, but not in some safe, fairy-tale sense. Charlotte McConaghy has harnessed the rough magic that sears our souls. I recommend The Last Migration with my whole heart
—— Geraldine Brooks, Author of MarchPowerful...Vibrant...Unique... If worry is the staple emotion that most climate fiction evokes in its readers, The Last Migration - the novelistic equivalent of an energizing cold plunge - flutters off into more expansive territory
—— Los Angeles TimesHow far do we have to go to escape our pasts and find ourselves? Charlotte McConaghy’s luminous, brilliant novel, set in a future when wildlife is rapidly becoming extinct, is indeed about loss—but what makes it miraculous is that it is also about both the glimpses of hope and the shattering persistence of love, if we are only brave enough to acknowledge them. Written in prose as gorgeous as the crystalline beauty of the Arctic, The Last Migration is deeply moving, haunting, and, yes, important
—— Caroline Leavitt, author of Pictures of YouA lovely, haunting novel about a troubled woman’s quest to follow the last surviving Arctic terns on their southerly migration. As she tries to make peace with the ghosts of her painful past, she must choose whether she herself wants – or deserves – to survive, in spite of everything she, and all humans, have destroyed and lost
—— Ceridwen Dovey, author of In the Garden of the FugitivesThis book is a powerful - and entertaining - corrective to the idea that the only hopes that matter on this planet are those of our own species.
—— Tim Adams , GuardianMacdonald has a wonderful gift for exploring the intersection between nature and our experience of it, in writing that is both lyrical and impassioned.
—— Hannah Beckerman , ObserverOne of the most beautiful memoirs I've ever read. This story will say with you long after you put the book down
—— Emma GannonI just turned the last page (reluctantly!). A bold, often brutal exploration of memory, grief and love. Full of hope and heart. I can't recommend it enough
—— Terri White, author of Coming UndoneA brave, brilliant book that is both beautiful and important. Read it then buy it for all your friends
—— Hello!Gavanndra's memoir The Consequences of Love is absolutely beautiful. It's compelling, heartbreaking, sweet, honest, fascination. I recommend it HIGHLY. I absolutely LOVED it.
—— Marian KeyesThis stunning exploration of grief is so well written and profoundly moving
—— Good HousekeepingAn elegant study of grief and memory
—— GuardianHodge pours heartbreak and love into the pages of a book that never pretends to know the answers, and is all the better for it
—— Sunday TimesAn eye-opening snapshot of the fashion world in '90s London
—— Vogue UK