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'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 Millas in this book, in which science is intertwined with literature. The palaeontologist reveals essential aspects of our existence to the writer, 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, ageing, natural selection, programmed death, and survival.
Here you will find humour, 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.
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 Musee de l'Homme of Paris, a visiting professor at University College 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 Maria 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.
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
Praise for Life As Told by a Sapiens to a Neanderthal :
'Written with humour 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
Praise for Life As Told by a Sapiens to a Neanderthal :
'Millas is one of the writers with the most truth per square centimetre of a page.'
-- Antonio Iturbe * What to Read *
Praise for Life As Told by a Sapiens to a Neanderthal :
'We like wise men to explain things to us and understand each other. This is what Arsuaga does wonderfully in his book, a luminous treatise on life, the universe and human existence.'
-- Victor M. Amela * La Vanguardia *
Praise for Life As Told by a Sapiens to a Neanderthal :
'Juan Jose Millas is the owner of a fantastic territory of unquestionable personality.'
-- J.E. Ayala-Dip * El Pais *
Praise for Life As Told by a Sapiens to a Neanderthal :
'Juan Luis Arsuaga has recounted that prodigious start of human life with all the force of the great chronicles of travel and discoveries, with his double talent as a storyteller and scientist.'
-- Antonio Munoz Molina
Praise for Life As Told by a Sapiens to a Neanderthal :
'Millas takes advantage of the present to tell us about his life, to express his perplexity, which is ours, before the passing of the world ... Navigating through it allows our imagination to travel.'
-- Fernando Delgado * La Opinion *
Praise for Life As Told by a Sapiens to a Neanderthal :
'[Arsuaga] is one of the world's leading experts on the evolution of our species, as well as a prestigious scientist and a born populariser.'
-- Ixone Diaz Landaluce * ABC *
