3.5
The Last Neanderthal
ByPublisher Description
From the author of The Bear, the enthralling story of two women separated by millennia, but linked by an epic journey that will transform them both.
Forty thousand years in the past, the last family of Neanderthals roams the earth. After a crushingly hard winter, their numbers are low, but Girl, the oldest daughter, is just coming of age and her family is determined to travel to the annual meeting place and find her a mate.
But the unforgiving landscape takes its toll, and Girl is left alone to care for Runt, a foundling of unknown origin. As Girl and Runt face the coming winter storms, Girl realizes she has one final chance to save her people, even if it means sacrificing part of herself.
In the modern day, archaeologist Rosamund Gale works well into her pregnancy, racing to excavate newly found Neanderthal artifacts before her baby comes. Linked across the ages by the shared experience of early motherhood, both stories examine the often taboo corners of women's lives.
Haunting, suspenseful, and profoundly moving, The Last Neanderthal asks us to reconsider all we think we know about what it means to be human.
Forty thousand years in the past, the last family of Neanderthals roams the earth. After a crushingly hard winter, their numbers are low, but Girl, the oldest daughter, is just coming of age and her family is determined to travel to the annual meeting place and find her a mate.
But the unforgiving landscape takes its toll, and Girl is left alone to care for Runt, a foundling of unknown origin. As Girl and Runt face the coming winter storms, Girl realizes she has one final chance to save her people, even if it means sacrificing part of herself.
In the modern day, archaeologist Rosamund Gale works well into her pregnancy, racing to excavate newly found Neanderthal artifacts before her baby comes. Linked across the ages by the shared experience of early motherhood, both stories examine the often taboo corners of women's lives.
Haunting, suspenseful, and profoundly moving, The Last Neanderthal asks us to reconsider all we think we know about what it means to be human.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Last Neanderthal Reviews
3.5
“I was surprised by how moved I was by this book. The historical sections were meticulously researched, and I was impressed by how Cameron wove together anthropological detail with emotionally poignant narrative. I learned so much from this book about the Neanderthal people, but I never felt like I was reading a textbook or getting bogged down with small details. The character voice of the Neanderthal was distinct enough to convey difference, but familiar enough to evoke empathy in what came together as a wonderful balance.
I connected less with the contemporary story of the archaeologist. I found the dialogue in these sections a bit stunted and the character development a bit sporadic. I acknowledge that these chapters largely served to provide contextual information to the reader about the process of researching Neanderthals, and also worked to draw parallels across species and time, and at these things they were effective. The characters in these sections were largely in service to Cameron's overall goal of showing the "humanity" of the Neanderthal people by juxtaposing them with contemporary humans, and were less served as characters in their own right.
Near the end of the book, both female characters across the two timelines give birth, and there are rather graphic descriptions of birthing and early motherhood that made me uncomfortable. I acknowledge fully that this is a me problem, rather than a book problem, but if other folks are squeamish about graphic descriptions of birth, they may want to give this one a pass. Overall though, I was pleasantly surprised by my enjoyment of this book and would recommend it to folks who want to have their perceptions changed about Neanderthal life and culture.”
“i was intrigued by the premise of the story, but the execution fell flat :/”
“I was interested in the concept and message of the story, but it just felt flat and anticlimactic by the end”
“i could appreciate where the story was supposed to go. However, I found it boring 😭 this is just not my cup of tea”
About Claire Cameron
Claire Cameron's novel, The Bear, became a #1 national bestseller in Canada and was long-listed for the 2014 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Her first novel, The Line Painter, was nominated for an Arthur Ellis Award for best crime first novel and won the Northern Lit Award from the Ontario Library Service.
Cameron's writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Globe & Mail, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Salon. She is a staff writer at The Millions and lives in Toronto with her husband and two sons.
Cameron's writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Globe & Mail, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Salon. She is a staff writer at The Millions and lives in Toronto with her husband and two sons.
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