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Primal Tears

by Kelpie Wilson

Primal Tears Cover

ISBN13: 9781583941331
ISBN10: 1583941339
Condition: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

A cross between a human and a bonobo? Carl Sagan and others have speculated: Is it possible? What kind of creature would it be? And how might this affect our world? Kelpie Wilson takes the premise and runs with it in this engaging novel. "Primal Tears" is the story of Sage, born to a young woman who has volunteered to be a surrogate mother for an endangered species of chimpanzee. The process goes awry, and Sage, a lovable youngster, is neither completely one species nor the other. When her existence becomes public knowledge, she needs all the best characteristics of both species to find a place for herself in our human-dominated world.

Synopsis:

Primal Tears tells the story of Sage, a female born to a human who had volunteered to be a surrogate mother for an endangered species program but is instead accidentally impregnated with bonobo chimpanzee sperm. Sage is raised in a remote part of Oregon, exhibiting characteristics of both her species. Her troubles begin when her existence becomes public knowledge and the government takes her from her family and places her in a research facility. Her escape marks the beginning of a series of powerful events with implications beyond Sage?s story.
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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
apeaquatic, June 27, 2006 (view all comments by apeaquatic)
Review of Primal Tears in the Summer 2006 issue of Earth Island Journal, by Karen Pickett:

Primal Tears is a funny, deep, exciting, and biologically correct novel springing from an innovative idea: What if efforts to bring back endangered species from the brink are taken another step through a different kind of captive breeding program, with human surrogate mothers carrying the endangered fetus to term, thereby increasing birth rate of the species threatened with extinction? Not possible for whooping cranes, snail darters, or tiger salamanders, but it is not so far flung a concept for bonobo chimps, who are as close to humans genetically as horses are to donkeys, and that?s how we got mules, right? Things get interesting for author Kelpie Wilson?s character Sarah Carrigan when she implants a bonobo embryo into her womb in just such an ecologically-driven experiment. She gets more than she bargained for when the fertilized egg fails to implant, but some left-over bonobo sperm fertilizes one of her own eggs. Sage, the human-bonobo girl, is thus conceived.

Sage in some ways has the best of both worlds, being extremely agile and strong, smart and curious, but decidedly different from her peers, sporting a slightly protruding brow and a hairy back. Sage is no Bigfoot ? though is once mistaken for one ? but is able to fit in, fending off curiosity.

When the truth about her conception is revealed, the reality of societal hostilities to new ideas, and moreover to the inherent rights of animals to exist along with humans, comes galloping in from the Child Welfare agency, followed by the local sheriffs and federal agents, fired up by the Bible-thumping Kristian Kommand, who call her ?Satan?s spawn.? All hell breaks loose as the family flees to prevent Sage from being taken away, shifting gears into an escape plan they hoped they would never have to use. After a long hike through the Siskiyou wilderness and stints with friends in Canada and on a rural California Indian Reservation, the law catches up with them again, this time snatching Sage away. But the youngster now knows the drill, and manages to escape on the way to ?protective custody.? The inherent survival skills of the wily teenager kick into gear. We are along for the ride on Sage?s adventures, exploring her arriving sexuality, living in the forest with the bears, running from the right-wing Kristian Kommand and hooking up with ?Tree Nation,? a group of young tree-sitters determined to keep the chain saws at bay in the old-growth forest.

To read the rest of this review go to www.earthisland.org/EIJOURNAL
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781583941331
Author:
Wilson, Kelpie
Publisher:
North Atlantic Books
Subject:
Science Fiction - General
Subject:
Human ecology
Subject:
Endangered species
Subject:
Science / Adventure
Subject:
FICTION / Science Fiction/Adventure
Subject:
Science fiction
Publication Date:
October 2005
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Pages:
312
Dimensions:
854x562x92 93
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