Ape House
by Sara Gruen
$26.00
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau; 1 edition (September 7, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0385523211
ISBN-13: 978-0385523219
Annotation/Flashtalk:
As one, the bonobos turned to face the hallway. Isabel looked from face to face, puzzled. "What? What is it?" VISITOR, signed Bonzi. The rest of the apes remained motionless, their eyes trained on the door. "No, not a visitor. The visitors left," said Isabel. The apes continued to stare down the hallway. Sam's hair rose until it stood on end, and a pricking like tiny spiders crept over Isabel's scalp…The rustling stopped, but all eyes—human and ape—remained on the hallway. Sam's nostrils flared. He turned to Isabel and signed urgently, VISITOR, SMOKE….In eight years of daily contact, she'd never seen the bonobos behave like this. Their adrenalin was contagious….The thunderous explosion blasted the door entirely out of its frame. As it carried her backward, she processed that she and the door were being propelled down the hall by a billowing, rolling wall of fire….Shadowy figures in black clothes and balaclavas swarmed in and spread out, strangely, frighteningly silent. Crowbars swung and glass flew, but the people didn't speak.
Summary:
Scientist Isabel Duncan has been raising a family of bonobo apes as part of the Great Ape Language Lab. These incredible apes have acquired the ability to communicate with humans via a computer and American Sign Language (ASL). They have become like family to Isabel. Late one night the apes sense “Bad Strangers” in the lab and start frantically signing to Isabel – and then the explosion! When Isabel wakes up in the hospital, she finds out her beloved apes have been sold and she fears for their safety.
Once out of the hospital, Isabel begins the task of trying to track down the apes. Then serendipitously she sees a billboard advertising “Ape House” a new show coming to television. The apes in the show are her apes from the Great Ape Language Lab. The entire world seems transfixed by sight of these apes living in a house using a computer to order food, toys and furniture; everyone that is but Isabel. She is both elated that the world is able to see the beauty and intelligence of these apes and their ability to communicate; however, she is also afraid that whoever is behind the show is not taking proper care of the apes.
Still trying to get to the bottom of where the apes are, Isabel reaches out to a reporter, John Thigpen, who once visited the lab. The matriarchal ape had trusted John, so Isabel feels she can trust him to. Together with some friends, Isabel has found some interesting information about who was behind the explosion and wants to use it to get her family of apes back and into a suitable environment. One day, Sam, one of the apes identifies using ASL that one of his caregivers is the one of the “bad stranger” kidnappers. The show’s producers immediately shut the show down. Can Isabel and John still save the apes before they are sold to an animal experimentation lab?
Genre/Subgenre: Fiction/General
Evaluation: 3-stars.
