Death As Told by a Sapiens to a Neanderthal

by Juan José Millás, Juan Luis Arsuaga, Thomas Bunstead (Translator), Daniel Hahn (Translator)

Overview

A dazzling follow-up to Life As Told by a Sapiens to a Neanderthal.

‘We would love to discover that each species has a biological clock in its cells, because, if that clock existed and if we were able to find it, perhaps we could stop it and thus become eternal,’ Arsuaga tells Millás in this book, in which science is intertwined with literature. The paleontologist reveals essential aspects of our existence to the writer, and debates the advisability of transmitting his random vision of life to a dieting Millás, who discovers that old age is a country in which he still feels like a foreigner.

After the extraordinary international reception of Life As Told by a Sapiens to a Neanderthal, the most brilliant double act in Spanish literature once again dazzle the reader by addressing topics such as death and eternity, longevity, disease, aging, natural selection, programmed death, and survival.

Here you will find humor, biology, nature, life, a lot of life … and two fascinating characters, the Sapiens and the Neanderthal, who surprise us on every page with their sharp reflections on how evolution has treated us as a species. And also as individuals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781957363752
Publisher:	Scribe Publications Pty Ltd
Publication date:	06/04/2024
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.30(h) x (d)

About the Author

Juan José Millás is a bestselling and multi award–winning Spanish novelist and short-story writer, and an award-winning regular contributor to major Spanish newspapers. His narrative works have been translated into more than 20 languages, and include the novels From the Shadows and None Shall Sleep.

Juan Luis Arsuaga is a professor of paleontology at the Complutense University of Madrid and the director of the Human Evolution and Behaviour Institute. He is a member of the American National Academy of Sciences and of the Musée de l’Homme of Paris, a visiting professor at UniversityCollege London, and a co-director of excavations at the Sierra de Atapuerca World Heritage site. He is a regular contributor to Nature, Science, and the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, is the editor of the Journal of Human Evolution, and is a regular lecturer at the universities of London, Cambridge, Berkeley, New York, Tel Aviv, and Zurich, among others. The recipient of many national and international awards, he is the author of more than a dozen works.

Thomas Bunstead is a writer and translator, and currently a Royal Literary Fellow at Aberystwyth University(2021–23). His recent translations include Portrait of an Unknown Lady by María Gainza and Skin by Sergio del Molino.

Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor, and translator, with some eighty books to his name. His work has won him the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award, and has been shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, among many others. His recent translations include Diamela Eltit’s Never Did the Fire, a novel, and Sidarta Ribeiro’s The Oracle of Night, a nonfiction book about neuroscience and dreaming.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Life As Told by a Sapiens to a Neanderthal:

“Absorbing, amusing, and enlightening; a charming exploration not only of evolution, but of human enquiry and wonder.”
—Rebecca Wragg Sykes, author of Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art

“Written with humor and lightly-worn learning, this book makes the familiar strange and the strange uncannily familiar; a fascinating journey into our shared prehistory via the shops, galleries, restaurants, playgrounds, and parks of a twenty-first century city.”
—Helen Gordon, author of Notes from Deep Time: A Journey Through Our Past and Future World

“A lovely book, full of information and wisdom … No doubt comparisons with be made to Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens, but Life as Told By a Sapiens to a Neanderthal, is much more fun … It makes you want more. What better recommendation for any book can there be than this? Roll on Life as Told By a Sapiens to a Neanderthal volume 2.”
—Neil Robinson, Irish Examiner

“Novelist Millás … and paleontologist Arsuaga combine forces in this introspective and playful exploration of human prehistory and evolution … Erudite yet fun, this is an illuminating trip into the past.”
—Publishers Weekly

“This book is an eclectic nonfiction vehicle for information that will push the curious reader toward further research and leave the casual reader with a colorful experience … It is a whimsical ride that constantly threatens to jump the rails from nonfiction into magic realism … there is literary sparkle to the text and plenty to learn.”
—Library Journal

“Charming.”
—Simon Ings, New Scientist

“Dazzling … The charming result of this collaboration combines Millás’s surreal, ironic humor and beautiful reflections with Arsuaga’s expertise, expressed with sharp and surprising observations and an ability to bring prehistory up to date.”
—Rebecca Wragg Sykes, New Scientist

From the Publisher