Fiction, Fiction Subjects

Neanderthal

Name: Neanderthal
Author: John Darnton
ISBN: 9780312963002

by John Darnton

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Overview

Not since Jurassic Park has a novel so enthralled readers everywhere. Now, enter the world of Neanderthal...

The expedition of the century...uncovers the find of the millennium...Neanderthal.

In the remote mountains of central Asia, an eminent Harvard archeologist discovers something extraordinary. He sends a cryptic message to two colleagues. But then, he disappears.

Matt Mattison and Susan Arnot— once lovers, now academic rivals— are going where few humans have ever walked, looking for a relic band of creatures that have existed for over 40,000 years, that possess powers man can only imagine, and that are about to change the face of civilization forever.

About the Author, John Darnton

John Darnton was born in New York City in 1941. He has worked for thirty years as a reporter, editor, and foreign correspondent for The New York Times, based in New York, Nigeria, Kenya, Spain, Poland, and the United Kingdom. He won the George Polk Award for his coverage of Africa and Eastern Europe, and in 1982 was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for stories smuggled out of Poland during martial law. He is married to Nina Darnton, also a journalist. They have two daughters, Kyra and Liza, and a son, Jaime. They live in New York City, where Darnton is the Culture Editor for The New York Times.

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Editorials

Library Journal

Darnton's best-selling adventure about scientists who discover a lost race of Neanderthals in Afghanistan is an obvious choice for libraries, so let us only observe that Jay O. Saunders does a good job of narration and move on to other thoughts. The back of the box reads, "Far away, in the mountains of Northern Asia, a guerrilla fighter vanishes, a schoolgirl is murdered, and an eminent Harvard paleontologist disappears." The listener hears about only the last of these three items, but it doesn't matter. Modern escape fiction, too jerky and dialog-heavy for unabridged recordings, lends itself to abridgment perfectly well without losing much stylistic integrity. Yes, one notices characters whizzing by without much development, but one suspects that there isn't all that much more in the full novel. Finally, although it would seem impossible to review this book without mentioning a certain other best-selling writer, we should do Darnton the favor of realizing that he falls squarely into the "lost race" tradition of H. Rider Haggard, Arthur Conan Doyle, and others from the turn of the century (though without the racism). A safe choice for all popular collections.Michael Barrett, San Antonio P.L., Tex.