Synopses & Reviews
On a research trip to West Africa, Dr. Hugo Archibald of the Boston Museum of Natural History encounters an orphaned baby chimpanzee. Archibald decides to bring the ape, whom he names Jennie, back to Boston and raise her alongside his own two young children as a kind of scientific experiment.
Jennie captures the hearts of everyone she encounters. She believes herself to be a human being. She does almost everything a human child can, from riding a tricycle to fighting over the television with her siblings to communicating in American
Sign Language.
Told from shifting points of view of those closest to Jennie, this heartwarming and bittersweet novel forces us to take a closer look at the species that shares 98 percent of our DNA and ask ourselves the question: What does it really mean to be human?
Jennie, based on the real story of the chimpanzee who inspired Curious George, is the celebrated novel that was recently made into the award-winning Disney television film The Jennie Project. It was translated into many languages and became a worldwide bestseller.
Review
Engaging and touching . . . A remarkable book.
Denver Post
Review
"Engaging and touching . . . A remarkable book."--
The Denver Post on
Jennie
"Brilliant and complex. Jennie is a dazzling fiction debut."--Los Angeles Times
on Jennie
"A poignant, thought-provoking story."--The Wall Street Journal on Jennie
"A haunting account of the nebulous line between man and animal. . . . Tragic, dark, irresistible."--Boston Herald on Jennie
"I love Jennie, the book and the chimp . . . a very remarkable person and a very important book."--Jane Goodall, bestselling author of In the Shadow of Man
"An amazing story."--Entertainment Weekly on Jennie
"Engrossing story of a chimp experiment . . . Jennie is a believable character, both hilarious and heart-breaking."--Cleveland Plain Dealer on Jennie
"An enchanting morality tale in which genes and evolution replace fates of ancient tragedy. . . . Preston sticks to scientific fact and so it's to his credit that he reader finds himself asking 'Is Jennie human?' and to the end is never convinced that she is not."--Dallas Morning News on Jennie
Review
"Brilliant and complex....
Jennie the novel is a dazzling fiction debut." --
The Los Angeles Times"A haunting account of the nebulous line between man and animal....Tragic, dark, irresistible." --Boston Herald
"Douglas Preston's Jennie has everything: an unforgettable main character, a powerful theme, a heartachingly beautiful compelling story. This is a stunning debut by a special talent. It feels like a classic." --David Morrell, author of First Blood [Rambo]
"Mr. Preston has given us a novel that is fresh and different, that holds us to every page, and that not only takes us inside the mind of a closely related primate, but teaches us something about our own humanity, or lack of it." --Stuart Woods, author of Dead Eyes
"Our dusty museums contain many secrets, and fiction is probably the best and safest way to reveal them, as Doug Preston does so captivatingly in Jennie." --Alan B. Ternes, editor, Natural History, published by the American Museum of Natural History
"I love Jennie, the book and the chimp. You have created a very remarkable person and a very important book." --Jane Goodall, author of In the Shadow of Man
Review
Brilliant and complex. Jennie is a dazzling fiction debut.
Los Angeles Times
Review
A poignant, thought-provoking story.
The Wall Street Journal
Review
A haunting account of the nebulous line between man and animal. . . . Tragic, dark, irresistible.
Boston Herald
Review
I love Jennie, the book and the chimp . . . a very remarkable person and a very important book.
Jane Goodall
Review
An amazing story.
Entertainment Weekly
Review
Engrossing . . . Jennie is a believable character, both hilarious and heart-breaking.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Review
An enchanting morality tale in which genes and evolution replace fates of ancient tragedy.
Dallas Morning News
Synopsis
Douglas Preston's Jennie, based on the real story of the chimpanzee who inspired Curious George, is the celebrated novel that was made into the award-winning Disney television film The Jennie Project. Translated into many languages, Jennie became a worldwide bestselling sensation.
On a research trip to West Africa, Dr. Hugo Archibald of the Boston Museum of Natural History encounters an orphaned baby chimpanzee. Archibald decides to bring the ape, whom he names Jennie, back to Boston and raise her alongside his own two young children as a kind of scientific experiment.
Jennie captures the hearts of everyone she encounters. She believes herself to be a human being. She does almost everything a human child can, from riding a tricycle to fighting over the television with her siblings to communicating in American Sign Language.
Told from shifting points of view of those closest to Jennie, this heartwarming and bittersweet novel forces us to take a closer look at the species that shares 98 percent of our DNA and ask ourselves the question: What does it really mean to be human?
Synopsis
Jennie is the fictional account of a chimpanzee named Jennie Archibald based on real-life histories of four chimpanzees who were raised as children in human families: Meshie Mungkut, Lucy Temerlin, Vickie Hayes, and Nim Chimopsky--all of whom eventually died under tragic and even horrifying circumstances. All the scientific experiments described in this novel actually took place, under slightly different circumstances.
About the Author
Douglas Preston is the co-author with Lincoln Child of the celebrated Pendergast series of novels, including such best-selling titles as Fever Dream, The Book of the Dead, The Wheel of Darkness, and Relic, which became a number one box office hit movie. His solo novels include the New York Times bestsellers Impact, Blasphemy, The Codex, and Tyrannosaur Canyon. His most recent nonfiction book, The Monster of Florence, is being made into a film starring George Clooney. Preston is an expert long-distance horseman, a member of the elite Long Riders Guild, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He has travelled to remote parts of the world as an archaeological correspondent for The New Yorker. He also worked as an editor and writer at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University. Preston is the Co-president of International Thriller Writers, and serves on the Governing Council of the Authors Guild.