From the author of critically acclaimed Don Don comes this startling journey through a distant land. In an African country, while a civil war rages, Kibwe and Zuberi meet. Both are 12 years old, both are orphans; Kibwe's parents killed in the name of war and Zuberi's in the name of trade. Kibwe is a boy and Zuberi a gorilla, a young silverback. They are on the run: Kibwe, from the horrors he has committed as a child soldier, and Zuberi, from the violent hand of man. The former is desperate to reclaim his humanity; the latter, determined to have a family once more. Can they help one another get back what each has lost?
In this, his third novel, Nick Taussig constructs two parallel yet contrasting storylines - one with a young boy soldier as narrator and the other a gorilla, a young silverback - in order to explore the best and worst of human nature in the light of our ape inheritance.
These two strands gradually come together to produce a gripping, moving and provocative book. His most ambitious novel to date, this work has a timeless and apocalyptic feel.
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