Overview
Advance Praise for Anthill
"Thick with the spell of nature, Anthill is a powerful tale of ant empires and a boy determined to save them.”—Diane Ackerman, author of The Zookeeper's Wife
Praise for Edward O. Wilson
“Wilson speaks with a humane eloquence which calls to us all.”—Oliver Sacks
"His style is gracious and lucid, the example of his life greatly inspiring."—Barry Lopez
“Wilson is a writer of enthralling importance for our place in time.”—Edward Hoagland, Los Angeles Times
“There’s a new Darwin. His name is Edward O. Wilson.”—Tom Wolfe
Synopsis
Inspirational and magical, the story of boy who grows up determined to save the world from its most savage ecological predator: Man himself.
The Barnes & Noble Review
If Wilson's skills as a teller of human tales seem nascent at best, his role as nature's litterateur is unique and necessary. For the realms of insects and other creatures offer untapped possibilities for literary exploration. Some populations of the Globe Skimmer dragonfly, for instance, migrate up to 11,000 miles back and forth across the Indian Ocean. It takes four generations to make the trip -- a sweeping epic in the making. Wilson has long championed the concept of biophilia -- the love of life in all its forms -- as a quality necessary to achieving balance and sustainability in our relation with the natural world. Perhaps biophilia's promise will only be realized when we can inhabit nature with the full resources of our imagination, resources which literature marshals like no other mode of thought. Anthill's main plot is sketchy, its characters and their motives are fuzzily drawn, and its denouement unlikely. But the entomological epic at this flawed novel's heart leaves me with a wild and hopeful question: has the time come for the dragonflies to have their Tolstoy?
Editorials
The Economist
One part of Anthill, by the world’s leading myrmecologist, demonstrates that in Mr Wilson ants have found not only their Darwin but also their Homer.... The tale within a tale is an astonishing literary achievement; nobody but Mr Wilson could have written it, and those who read it will tread lightly in the forest, at least for a while.... his evocation of their ways is a more powerful tool for raising ecological awareness than any Disneyfication is likely to be.The Daily Beast
[A] beautifully written coming-of-age novel about a young boy in Alabama. The highly respected author and entomologist may be sneaking some science down the throats of self-respecting fiction readers everywhere with the tale of a boy-turned-environmental lawyer who tries to save wildlife, but we hardly mind.Shelf Awareness
The savage conflicts between the Trailhead and Waterside colonies are as dramatic as any epic of Herodotus or Thucydides, histories Wilson evokes in his characterization of the tiny warriors as myrmidons and hoplites.— Harvey FreedenbergThe New York Times
If you've ever wondered what it would be like to be reincarnated as an ant, this is probably the best description available.— Nicholas WadeNew York Review of Books
Despite the seriousness of the warning he means to convey, I believe Edward O. Wilson had a fine time writing his first novel. It shows in the exuberance of the prose, and in the inventiveness of the plot.... the reader will have a great time reading it. Certainly I did.— Margaret AtwoodThe New York Times Book Review
Melville gave us whales and obsessions, Orwell gave us pigs and politicians. Now Wilson suggests with winning conviction that in our own colonies, we proceed at our peril when we cast off mindful restraint in favor of unchecked growth.... carries the reader down the ant-hole to describe life from the ants' point of view. No writer could do this better, and Wilson's passion serves him best here. His language achieves poetic transcendence.— Barbara KingsolverBooklist
Starred Review. A foremost authority on ants, an eloquent environmentalist, and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for his exceptional nonfiction, Wilson has written a debut novel of astonishing dimension, acuity, and spirit.... With lyrical exactitude, empathy for all life, and a shocking conclusion, Wilson's wise, provocative novel of the interaction between humankind and the rest of nature expresses a resonant earth ethic.— Donna SeamanChicago Tribune
Wilson’s foray into fiction allows him to write more expressively, psychologically, even spiritually about the great web of life, humankind included, and the irrefutable rules for ecological survival. ... A teacher as well as a scientist, Wilson uses the prism of fiction to cast new light on the grand unifying lesson of nature: all of us earthlings, all of life’s astonishing creations, thrive or fail together.— Donna SeamanBarbara Kingsolver
Melville gave us whales and obsession, Orwell gave us pigs and politicians. Now Wilson suggests with winning conviction that in our own colonies, we proceed at our peril when we cast off mindful restraint in favor of unchecked growth. It's hard to resist the notion that as we bustle around with our heads bent to the day's next task, we are like nothing so much as a bunch of ants.—The New York Times Book Review
Nicholas Wade
Anthill is an enjoyable read, and not didactic…If you've ever wondered what it would be like to be reincarnated as an ant, this is probably the best description available.—The New York Times