The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore

Bruno Littlemore is unlike any chimpanzee in the world. Precocious, self-conscious, and preternaturally gifted, young Bruno falls under the care of a university primatologist named Lydia Littlemore. But for all of his gifts, the chimpanzee has a rough time caging his more primal urges. Bruno's untimely outbursts ultimately cost Lydia her job and send them on what proves to be one of the most unforgettable journeys-and most affecting love stories-in recent literature.

With THE EVOLUTION OF BRUNO LITTLEMORE, Benjamin Hale presents a relentlessly inventive coming of age story that is by turns comic, violent, heartbreaking, and perverse. Talking animals are as old as storytelling, but Bruno's fictional memoir stands apart for its brilliant and striking expression of what it feels like to be human. It is, in the end, a novel about finding one's own voice, and insisting on it.