Parasites Like Us

Times are changing in South Dakota. Birds are disappearing. Dogs are turning on mankind. Hogs are no more. Anthropologist Hank Hannah has a hope: that by studying all of the lost civilizations of human history, he may finally come to understand the hearts of those nearest to him. But when one of his students discovers a prehistoric spear point, Hannah abandons his classroom in order to exhume a twelve-thousand-year-old grave, thereby unearthing an ancient and deadly legacy. Now his deep connection with an extinct people must guide him and his companions through an ever more uncertain future, across icy plains haunted by frozen corpses and burning pyres, back twelve thousand years to the dawn of another Ice Age. Adam Johnson's singular blend of extraordinary compassion, ingenious wit, and athletic prose have earned him comparisons to the likes of Salinger, Vonnegut, and Boyle. His visionary debut novel will not only cement that reputation, but is also certain to attract a variety of readers ranging from fans of Michael Chabon's Wonder Boysto Stephen King's The Stand.

Adam Johnson, a former Wallace Stegner Fellow, teaches at Stanford University. His fiction has appeared in publications such as Esquire and Harper's as well as Best New American Voices four years running (a record).