Colin McAdam'sA BEAUTIFULTRUTHTable of Contents

1. Cover2. Table of Contents3. Introduction4. Press Release5. Save the Chimps6. Excerpt from A BEAUTIFUL

TRUTH7. Praise for Colin McAdam and A

BEAUTIFUL TRUTH8. Media Extras9. Colin McAdam's Fall Book Tour

10. Purchase the book11. Meet the Author12. About the video

CONTENTS1. A note from Soho Press2. Soho Press' Partnership with Save

the Chimps3. Chapters 1 and 2 of A

BEAUTIFUL TRUTH4. Praise for A BEAUTIFUL TRUTH5. Colin McAdam on TV and Radio6. Colin McAdam's 2013 Fall Book

Tour7. Purchase Options for Bookstores,

Academics, and Interested Readers 8. Meet the Author9. Book Trailer10. Additional information about the

book trailer

WE ARE NOT DESCENDED FROMAPES. WE ARE APES.

The twonarratives thatcomprise GillerPrize finalistColinM c A d a m’ s A

Beautiful

Truth (Soho

Press,

September 2013) are like few that I’veencountered. McAdam possesses astartling talent, which was evident in hisfirst two novels, Some Great Thing and

Fall, but it is in this third novel—onethat he began work on in 2009—thatMcAdam has achieved brilliance.

A Beautiful Truth’s twinning plotsfocus on the lives of humans andchimpanzees, both independent of eachother as well as when they coexist. In thefirst narrative we meet Judy and WalterRibke, two affluent Vermonters that haveadopted a chimpanzee as a surrogateson, affectionately naming him Looee. Itis a sometimes sad and often charmingstory about an unlikely family tryingtheir best despite the often confusingreality of their situation. And yet it isalso fraught with undeniable tension, asthe fragile nature of their adopted son’s

domesticity is tested daily. Alwayspresent is the fear that Looee,particularly as he enters adolescence,might lose control of his urges.

In the second narrative we meet atroop of chimpanzees that are part of alanguage experiment at the fictiveGirdish Institute in Florida. Thedescription of the work at Girdish isfascinating and thoroughly researched,as McAdam brilliantly renders theinterior lives of these remarkablechimps and the scientists studying them.The work at the institute has proven thatchimps have memories, understandsignification in language, and can solvecomplex problems with both logic andemotional intelligence. The group at

Girdish is very much like us: political,altruistic, quick to anger, and often asquick to forgive.

A Beautiful Truth is a powerful andhaunting meditation on ape-kind. Thewide-ranging engagement of this novelencompasses nearly the entirety of thelives of captive chimps, from their brutalrole in medical research to their stunningability to communicate and learn humanwords, making McAdam’s novel asmuch related to Upton Sinclair’s TheJungle as it is to William Golding’s TheInheritors.

Best regards,Paul Oliver

Marketing & Publicity Director, SohoPress

SAVE THE CHIMPS AND SOHOPRESS

ANNOUNCE FUNDRAISINGPARTNERSHIP

New York, September 3, 2013: Theworld’s largest chimpanzee sanctuary,Save the Chimps, and the New York-based book publisher Soho Press havelaunched a promotional campaign withthe goal of raising funds and spreading

awareness for the Florida sanctuary.Save the Chimps was founded by Dr.

Carole Noon in 1997 and is now hometo nearly 300 chimps. Their mission is toprovide and build support andpermanent sanctuary for the lifelong careof chimpanzees rescued from researchlaboratories, entertainment, and the pettrade.

The two parties united over themessage of Soho Press author ColinMcAdam’s third novel, A Beautiful

Truth, which prominently featureschimpanzees in several differentstorylines, including roles in domesticsettings as well as in linguistic andmedical research facilities. Many of the

chimps who call Save the Chimps homewere rescued from situations similar tothose described in the novel.

"Save the Chimps is honored topartner with Soho Press as they helpeducate animal lovers and everyoneabout chimpanzees," says Save theChimps Executive Director Jo Sullivan."A Beautiful Truth does an amazing jobat telling the stories of chimpanzees incaptivity today and it also helps peopleunderstand why these amazing soulsshould be loved, respected andprotected in their natural habitat. Wehope everyone reads this book andcomes to see Chimpanzees as we do."

Soho Press has pledged a portion ofall proceeds from sales of the novel (in

electronic and print formats in all saleschannels) to Save the Chimps to helpcover their operating costs, but buyingthe book directly from Save the Chimpsgets the sanctuary the most money.

Colin McAdam is doing two launch-week events with Save the Chimps. Thefirst is at the Vero Beach Book Centeron A Beautiful Truth’s publication day,

September 17th. The second is at Savethe Chimps facilities for their “MemberDay” where both the author and thechimpanzees will be on hand. Interestedparties can purchase a copy at eitherevent or preorder the book on Save theChimps’ website.

“I am thrilled,” McAdam says of

hearing about the partnership. “I did alot of research for A Beautiful Truth,including spending time withchimpanzees in similar situations asthose at Save the Chimps. It makes mehappy that the story can make a realdifference. This really is a lovelypartnership.”

There is a second fundraising andawareness campaigned planned by thetwo companies next spring, whichinvolves bookstores and librarians. Theproceeds are in benefit of Save theChimps for the lifetime of the SohoPress edition of McAdam’s A Beautiful

Truth.

ABOUT SAVE THE CHIMPSA portion of all sales of this book

goes to Save the Chimps.Save the Chimps was founded by Dr.

Carole Noon in 1997 and is now theworld's largest chimpanzee sanctuary.Located in Ft. Pierce, Florida, thesanctuary is now home to nearly 300chimps rescued from various situations,including medical research. Its missionis to provide and build support and

permanent sanctuary for the lifelong careof chimpanzees rescued from researchlaboratories, entertainment, and the pettrade.

For more on Save the Chimps andwhat you can do to help their cause(or just to look at the amazingchimpanzee paintings), click HERE.

oneVermontJudy and Walter Walt Ribke lived on

twelve up-and-down acres, open towhatever God gave them, on the easternboundary of Addison County, four feetdeep in the years of rueful contentment.Judy was younger than Walt, her dreamshad an urgent truth, and five years hadpassed since they removed a cyst fromher womb that was larger than a melon.Her uterus collapsed and for a year sheawoke to formaldehyde dawns feelingsick and lonely and hopeless, no more

chance of a child.Time passed and Walt stayed near.

She held his hand when she sat or whenshe slept. They painted the house alighter blue.

On various nights in various waysJudy said do I feel old Walter, and hesaid you’re too young to be old. Comehere.

Walt and his partners, Larry andMike, had built or bought more than halfof the commercial space in southeast andcentral Vermont. They provided theroofs, walls and drains around bakeries,cheese shops, notaries public and all theunimaginable businesses sprung from theminds of people who could not conceiveof working for other people. Walt

believed in doing your own thing,finding your own way. The rent camemonthly, businesses closed and opened.Walt made other investments, he gavethanks and shared his wealth. Paint forthe church, in perpetuity. Books andshelves for the beetle-eaten library.

There were wealthy couples you readabout where the man worked and thewoman shopped and other peoplemocked or reviled them. Walt was inlove, and held close the fact that there isnothing more natural or right than buyingthe world for the woman of your dreams.Try to name the value of that smile toWalt and his life-worn heart.

And Judy wanted little. She did notspend her days buying furniture and

curtains. When dresses and shoesappeared in her wardrobe they hadusually been sought for and bought byWalt. Before the operation she hadwanted one thing, and after the operationshe tried to get used to not wanting. Theysaid the desire for children wouldnaturally dissipate, but a man who losesa leg does not stop wanting to dance orkick.

In her rational moments she allowedherself to want nothing more thanspending time with a child. It didn’t haveto be her own, it didn’t have to bebeautiful or smart, it just had to be nearfor her to care about it and give her thattaste of renewal and possibility thatchildren represent. She was calm about

her desire, but every now and then,alone, she yearned like a prisoner yearnsfor friends beyond the wall.

I need a purpose she said.She volunteered to visit people who

were dying.I’ll keep Mr. McKendrick company

on Thursday nights. They say he hasthree months.

That’ll be good for him said Walt.I don’t know.And good for you.It’s a purpose.Your beautiful face every Thursday.

He’ll be cured, Judy. He’ll live forever.I’m young said Judy.You’re beautiful.I just want to make you proud she

said.They bought paintings and a car and a

dog named Murphy, but with everypurchase and passing Sunday was afeeling that life was a collection ofgestures and habits and it was hard tofind surprises when most surprises wereplanned.

That sad light in Judy’s eyes wasbecoming a settled part of her, andmaybe, Walt thought, that’s life.

His first wife had been killed in theircar near Binghamton, a truck driver sleptat the wheel. A lake of grief still sat inhis chest and it would never properly beplumbed, but the one thing he could thinkof, the one fact which he could find thefortitude to contemplate, was that the

trucks would never stop. He found alesson in that. Those goods that peoplewant or think they need, hurtling acrossthe country. You can stand still andscream at the trucks but they’ll run youdown; you can hop on and go where theygo; you can find all sorts of ways toavoid them. You can adjust, instead ofaccepting, and you can make your ownworld.

Walt had wanted a baby with his firstwife but she was taken away so young.With Judy he had never doubted it wouldhappen, but it hadn’t and now itwouldn’t. He was more than happy withthe thought of looking at Judy till hedied, but as for what she had to look at:Walt was getting jowly from beer and

his great love of cheese. When hethought about the idea of having a child,that modern human ability to choose tohave a child, and when he thought aboutbeauty and how things can change, hecould see how, maybe for a man, a childmight be a way to make these momentslast—some way to prolong a beauty thatcan’t be preserved. But he simplyunderstood it as love. He wanted whatshe wanted, and was sad that he couldn’tprovide it.

They looked into adoption for a time,but the options were limited and waitinglists long. Walt said we’ll figure it out.

One of the buildings they owned inthe county was a bar called Viv’s. Waltmet Larry and some of the others there

most Thursdays, especially once theseason began. Viv’s was in easy drivingdistance from Willamette Valley wherewhite-tailed deer would rut. The barwas a place where Walt and his friendscould relax or celebrate or payinarticulate respect to the thrill andregret of hunting for meat.

Out of season they found other thingsto talk about, and Viv was always goodat gathering newspapers and magazines.He encouraged the exchange of facts, hesaid, not opinions, because opinions arelike sperm: there are way too many ofthem, most amount to nothing, andthey’re more fun to deliver than toreceive.

Viv usually had some newfound

knowledge to announce, and in February1972 he passed a copy of Life magazineto Walt and said now the monkeys aretalking.

Walt looked at the article and itchanged his life with Judy.

“Conversations with a Chimp” it wascalled.

He saw a photo of a chimpanzeesitting on a carpeted floor, apparently inconversation with a man. Walt read thearticle and learned of a group of chimpsin Oklahoma who had been taught tospeak in sign language. They could talkabout things they saw and things theywanted to eat. They spokespontaneously.

One of the chimpanzees, a girl, was

walking with the man in the picture oneday and watched a plane fly overhead.She looked up at the man and signedYOU ME RIDE PLANE.

Walt found that amazing and read thatpart aloud.

There was a photo of a babychimpanzee in a diaper, sitting on awoman’s lap. And on the cover of themagazine was a picture of a beautifulwoman who was involved with HowardHughes. Walt measured all beautyagainst that of Judy and found the womanlovely, but wanting. There is no happierfeeling.

As he drove home, the thoughts ofJudy, the photo of the chimpanzee in thediaper, the beer and the bleakness of

February all swam in his head in alonely and protozoan soup, till lightningstruck, an idea was born, and Waltbegan making inquiries into how hecould acquire a chimpanzee.

He had no idea where to look, whatto expect, what a chimp was or whetherhe could in fact buy one. He thought ofzoos, wondered how zoos got theiranimals. He thought about all the peoplehe knew in husbandry, the friends whotraded livestock, the hundreds ofacquaintances involved with animals inone way or another. Judy had been atShelburne, buying Walt some cheese. Heremembered she had watched some kidsgetting excited about the new llamas.That was about the most exotic animal

he had heard of in Vermont.Where do you see chimps he asked

Viv, and Viv said you see them at acircus sometimes, don’t you.

So Walt kept his eye out for circuses.He had spent a few years now trying

not to go near things or bring up topicsthat would make Judy think of children.He hadn’t wanted to upset her.

He went alone to a circus inBurlington and there was indeed achimpanzee who came out a few timeswith a clown. The clown juggledbananas and the chimp tried to jump andreach them without joy, so he pulled theclown’s pants down, revealing pinkbloomers, and the clown dropped all thebananas. The chimp looked like he was

laughing and so did everyone else. Itwas pretty funny. And at the end of theshow the chimp bowed and jumped intothe arms of the clown and it was alsopretty cute.

Walt waited till the crowd had leftand asked a guy if he could speak to theclown or the fella who played the clownor whatever you call him, and the guysaid he’s out in the blue trailer. Waltwent through to the street out back andknocked on the pale blue door.

The fella appeared, half clown halfman, and said yeah with lipstick lips.

Walt introduced himself and said hehad a question, and the clown said Icharge a hundred for a birthday and thekids can’t touch the monkey cause he

bites.Walt explained that he was interested

in the chimpanzee and wanted to knowwhere he could find one.

Are you a clown.No.Wait right there for a second.Walt heard a terrifying noise which

soon became part of his daily life. Hewas invited in, and there in a cage on thefloor in the corner was the chimpanzeefrom the show.

Settle down there buddy settle down.The chimp looked simultaneously

bigger and smaller somehow, and thesecond wave of noises was less of ashock to Walt. The chimp was in a pinkdress.

The clown said she doesn’t likepeople coming into the house. She’s in amood.

She’s a girl.Past few months or so she gets all

moody.Walt felt a strange combination of

embarrassment and curiosity. He wantedto look closer, but felt he should lookaway.

What’s her name.I call her Buddy. They’re all

different. Buddy here is a good one.Walt said hey Buddy, somewhere

between the way he would talk to ahorse and the way he would talk to aunicorn.

I can’t rent her out or anything. But I

can get you one for twelve grand.Christ.Sometimes as low as ten. I don’t have

that kind of money myself and if I did Iwouldn’t be a clown. You know. This isa chimpanzee. It’s not a racehorse butit’s not a dog. I can’t tell you where Ican get one, but it’s not a simple thing.

Walt stared at his lipstick.They’re not born here, you see. It

costs me. They travel. I travel.The chimpanzee was looking at Walt

and looking at the clown and she put herhand through a gap between the bars.

She wants to touch you.She seemed small again. Her face

wasn’t as pale as others Walt had seenin photos. He looked at her fingers and

something stirred in him. They seemedlong and you could almost imagine themon a grandmother.

She’s pretty goddamn strong. Youmight not want to touch her.

Walt saw no threat and softlyrepeated hey Buddy. He was low on hisworsening knees and reached towardsthe cage and gently put the back of hisown finger against the back of thechimp’s and held it there. Buddy.

She moved her finger slightly tomanipulate Walt’s and the clown said benice to the man, he’s a friend, be nice,and she looked at Walt with whitelesseyes and scratched a little mole on theside of his finger.

She’s cleaning you. It’s a thing they

do.Walt looked at her and her eyes

looked at his finger. Walt looked downat his finger and while he was smilinginside and thinking this animal’scleaning me with a woman’s finger, shegathered some spit and Walt felt thesplash on his face.

The clown said hey be nice nowdammit.

Walt looked at her and she laughedlike she laughed in the show.

I’ll be.Buddy stood up and made a gesture

and the clown said okay, come out, butbe nice.

She slipped the dress over her headand revealed a homemade diaper.

I keep a bat or a stick around, but I’mguessing if you’re not in the trade youwon’t be teaching so many tricks. I puther in the cage when there’s visitors orwhen she goes to bed and whatnot. Shecalls it her bedroom.

She talks.I talk. I call it her bedroom.I read about one who knew sign

language.Yeah, she knows signs. Tell daddy to

fuck off.She raised her finger.Doesn’t mean they’re ready for high

school.Buddy walked over to the couch with

her arms up like she was walkingthrough waist-deep water. She got up on

the couch and sat just like a personwould sit and Walt looked at her feet.They looked like hands.

The clown went to the fridge andgrabbed a can of beer which he tossedacross the room to her. She made a sortof coughing noise and opened the canwith her teeth.

I’d offer you one but there’s only oneleft.

He opened it and chugged it and sodid she.

When she neared the end she caughtthe last drops with prehensile lips,looked at Walt like she was telling him ajoke and didn’t care what he thought ofit, got up from the couch and went to thefridge where the clown said there’s no

more.She looked at him like she was

making sure she understood properly.Walt watched her flip through amagazine while the clown talkedbusiness. It seemed like everything shedid was either funny or impossible.

While driving home, Walt reflectedon his day and acknowledged that it wasalways going to be slightly odd to talk toa clown about a chimpanzee. But hismind was trying to catch up to greaterthings—the feeling of confusion had lessto do with negotiating with a clown andmore to do with the simple vision of thathairy little girl sitting on the couchacross from him. Was she a person or apet. The longer Walt drove, the more he

realized that what he predominantly feltwas excitement. This was an opening.She had seemed so energetic, so full ofstories somehow. Were they all like that.Were girls and boys different. She waseight and the clown said that wasdifferent from an eight-year-old girl, butmaybe not so different except for themenses and some peculiarities, hereckoned. He didn’t actually knowexactly what age she was.

What would Judy think.Walt had finalized nothing. He and

the clown had agreed that Walt wouldget in touch in a while and the clownwould make some inquiries and try toline up the right chimp. The younger themore expensive he said.

Walt wanted to think for a while andnot necessarily surprise Judy with ababy chimpanzee but maybe try to findthe right way to tell her about the idea.She was waiting with a roast chickenwhen he returned and she was thepicture of his idea of home and therewas gratitude in his heart. Please don’ttake those eyes away from me or letthem get any sadder.

A month or so later he met the clownat a diner in Burlington. He wore nomakeup and his name was Henry Morris.He could line up a chimp, probably aboy, might even need bottle-feeding.

Walt was nervous, but resolved.He talked Henry down to six

thousand dollars, not knowing that Henry

would pocket three of those six. Henryhimself did not know that his connectionin Sierra Leone, a German named FranzSinger, paid only thirty dollars for thechimps he sold for three thousand.

In Outamba-Kilimi a motherchimpanzee had been walking with herbaby clinging to her chest and a shotgunblast sent bone through the back of hereyes. She was several meals forLiberians across the border, herpunctured skull was ground into a pastewhich a man in Hong Kong bought toheal his broken arm, and her baby wasput in a sack and delivered to FranzSinger’s farm outside Freetown.

Nights of hunger and bony moons,steel and the rubber teat.

Singer’s chimpanzees wererenowned for being free of shotgunpellets, less work when they arrived.They flew in crates, Pan Am cargo,neither colonists nor slaves.

Henry met the crate.Walt told Judy he had bought a baby

chimp, and Judy looked at the paintingabove the mantel, oil of the lake insummer. It was night but she felt thewarm breath of the sun through her dressand thought life isn’t what you see it’swhat you think.

They slept with their bodies closethat night, their mindsgoing miles down separate roads whichthey never dreamt were separate.

Judy had seen enough hours and days

to know that when things are trulystrange their strangeness doesn’t appearuntil after the strangeness has passed.She thought of this when she was sittingon the living room floor looking into theeyes of Looee, who was holding herfingers on the bottle with hands that hadgrown so much in just a few months.

The deal between Walt and Henryhad been that Henry would find anappropriate place to present the chimp tohim and Judy. That seemed the hardestpart to Henry. He had done this a fewtimes now. He knew to buy a small cage,rent a pickup, drive to Newark, slip cashto the right people. The laws aboutexotics didn’t exist in those days andquarantine was a matter of money. He

knew exactly what he would do with thechimp but he couldn’t think of how topresent it back in Vermont. He got hisshoes shined at the airport in Newark bya really nice guy named Louis. He toldLouis with the right sort of wink that hewas staying at the Radisson and Louisrecommended a girl who gave Henry aten-dollar handjob that he would havepaid double for. He wanted to kiss herbut when he leaned forward sherecoiled. He drove back to Vermont andthought there’s that jungle gym in thepark for the kids, I’ll arrange that we allmeet there.

***two

Florida

The World needs fruit. The Worldneeds sleep. The World needs touch andthe quick pink heat.

Podo rules the World. Podo chooseshis moments.

He limps and others limp to be likehim. He eats his breakfast with loadedhands, and alms drop and scatter likeseeds from a shaken tree. He greets hisfriends and assesses the day and the daybows down to black Podo. He takes Fifiby the hips while she sucks on anorange.

He will play with children and pintheir mothers.

Podo runs to the greybald tree andswings around it once and twice anddoes something else without thinking

what it was, and it is always somethingto behold, fast Podo.

Outside are grass and dirt andswollen birds, high summer, there isconcrete and society. Armpit heat andguilty meat, and friends who come andgo.

Look to Podo if the food is takenfrom your mouths. Look to him if youthink all food can be yours.

He wants Fanta.He will pound the eyes of detractors.

Show him your rosé.A bird flies over the World.Fifi watches Mr. Ghoul. Mama likes

Fifi.Fifi likes Mama. Magda slaps

Bootie.

Bootie likes Burke and hittingMagda, his mother. Podo is pinningMagda and neither really wants it.

Bootie and the new one are jumpingall over Magda and Podo.

Bootie slaps Podo on the leg. Podo isbusy, sharp Podo.

Bootie and the new one want tounderstand. They want it to stop,continue.

The new one is looking at Magda’srosé getting pin, pin, pinned by Podo,and Bootie is thinking about slapping orbiting the swinging balls of Podo.

Podo thinks a thought that he can tasteand the World swells hot and dark.

He has finished.Magda walks away without looking

over her shoulder. Bootie and the newone are bewildered.

Podo feels the oa, grateful Podo.Magda feels safe.

He is huge, black Podo, and he walkswith black hair raised, and daylight blueand slick on his body, and his shouldersare widening, legs surprising, he coilsand uncoils with prowess and venerablegrace.

There is oa in the ground and oa inthe wind and everyone knuckles andbows, how-do.

Mr. Ghoul spends the morning eatingonions.

***Purchase the entire book, HERE.

Praise for Colin McAdam's ABEAUTIFUL TRUTH

"McAdam's language reaches intothat mysterious place where a word endsand a feeling begins. A Beautiful Truthis a story about love and beauty and ourdreams for our children and ourinescapable loneliness. The characters,human and animal, are sad and honestand true. I could not put this novel down,and only when I finished it could Ibreathe again." —Kim Echlin, author of

The Disappeared"Haunting. Heartbreaking ... it is a

tale of empathy and honesty, deftlytold and beautifully rendered." —Will

Ferguson, Scotiabank Giller Prize-

winning author of 419“The portrayal of chimpanzees as

individuals with memories isn’t just afictional device; the commonality ofhuman and chimpanzee conceived hereis achieved not by eliminating the traitsthat divide them but by illuminating thedifferences that unite them ... Withconcise language, this heartbreaking taleof loneliness and remembrance remindsus that understanding is a process ofgrowth and experience.” —Library

Journal, STARRED REVIEW"Weighty themes underlie McAdam's

spartan prose depicting the inner lives of

research chimps ... Brimming withambition, McAdam delivers a thought-provoking foray into the not-so-dissimilar minds of our aperelatives.” —Publishers Weekly

“[A] sure-handed and mature work,expertly weaving together shifts in voiceand point of view and making use of apoetic language full of direct, sensualmetaphors ... There are no platitudesabout the power of love and our need tofeel for one another, but rather anunderstanding of how sad and damaginga business love frequently is.” —The

Toronto Star“Kafka’s sketch ["A Report to an

Academy"] is an enduring satire on thekinship between humans and primates.McAdam’s novel is an earnest, daringand insistent attempt to show the moralimplications of that kinship.” —The

Globe and Mail“It’s to McAdam’s credit that Looee

is such a living, breathing character, sorich in mind and trajectory that he elicitsmuch empathy … Maybe one of the moststriking aspects of the novel is what thisjuxtaposition illuminates. Whetheranimal or human, the basic patterns ofeveryday life, the repetition, the need forcontact, affirmation and love, are thesame.” —National Post

"[A] gut punch of a novel … that’sgoing to get a lot of people talking. Andcrying.” —Toronto Life

“[A Beautiful Truth] deftly exploresthe mind of a domesticated ape ... aserious, thoughtful piece of work.” —The Telegraph

“The narrative [of A BEAUTIFULTRUTH] doesn’t just show humansinteracting with primates. Inventively,McAdam, gives them a narrative voiceand point of view ... the effect is jarring.McAdam has had to create a newlanguage.” —The Scotsman

COLIN MCADAM ON TV ANDRADIO

LISTEN: Colin McAdaminterviewed on Public RadioInternational's "To the Best of OurKnowledge."

READ: The Times LiterarySupplement reviews A Beautiful Truth,calling it "research [that becomes]rhapsodic lamentation."

WATCH: ColinMcAdam interviewed live on CanadaTV discussing the personal experiencesthat led him to write A Beautiful Truth.(Trouble viewing? Gohere: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO2CymTE6IQ )

READ: "I Fell for an Ape,"

McAdam's exquisite account of meetingPepper, a middle-aged chimpanzeeresiding in a Montreal facility.Originally published in SalonMagazine.

FALL 2013 BOOK TOUREdinburgh International Book

FestivalEdinburgh, ScotlandSaturday, August 24, 201310:15 a.m.

Vero Beach Book CenterVero Beach, FloridaTuesday, September 17, 20137:00 p.m.

Malaprop'sAsheville, North CarolinaWednesday, September 18, 20137:00 p.m.

Union Avenue BooksKnoxville, TennesseeThursday, September 19, 20136:00 p.m.

Save the Chimps Member DayVero Beach Chimpanzee SanctuarySaturday, September 21, 201311:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

SubText: A BookstoreSt. Paul, MinnesotaSunday, September 22, 20136:30 p.m.

Third Place BooksLake Forest Park, WashingtonMonday, September 23, 20137:00 p.m.

Green Apple BooksSan Francisco, CaliforniaTuesday, September 24, 20137:00 p.m.

Book SoupLos Angeles, California

Wednesday, September 25, 20137:00 p.m.

New York Public LibraryJefferson Market BranchThursday, October 3, 20136:30 p.m.

Texas Book FairAustin, TexasSaturday & Sunday, October 26-27,2013

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MEET THE AUTHOR

I was born in Hong Kong, and as achild I lived in Denmark, England,Canada and Barbados. I moved back toEngland to get a PhD at Cambridge—thethesis was on politically-skewedtranslations of Ancient Greek in England

in the 17th century, and it stops allconversations.

I moved to Sydney, Australia, afterthat where I lived for several years andwrote my first novel, Some Great Thing,which was first published in the UK. Imoved back to Canada—Montreal—whenthat came out and have been a full-timenovelist ever since (around ten years). Ilive in Toronto now. Some Great Thingwas about a builder and a civil servant.My next novel was called Fall, and wasabout teenage boys in a boarding school.A Beautiful Truth is about chimpanzees.They're all different from one another,but there is a continuity that might onlybe clear to me.

From my travels I think I became

interested in territorial behavior, in howand why people claim to be differentfrom others, and also in the psychologiesthat drive some people toward eachother and some further apart. I ultimatelywanted to look at this at an animal level,and as I read about other great apes Irealized that most answers to humanquestions can be found within thebiology and behavior of apes. I think ofmyself as an ape and have learned to seethe world in quite a different way afterdoing the research for A Beautiful Truth.

I met some remarkable chimpanzeeswhile I was doing the research, at asanctuary outside Montreal. I hadconnections with some, moments where Irealized these were two very similar

animals looking at each other through aprotective fence. The connectionsdeepened when I learned their histories:the fact that many of them had been incages at biomedical labs for decades. Itwas all the more remarkable that someof them wanted to reach out and groomme.

I spent a long time going through themedical files of some ofthem—particularly one named Pepper. Itwas on these that I based Looee'sexperiences in the lab, in the novel.

The novel is really a collection oftrue stories. I think people areinstinctively inclined to believe it is afantasy because it involves "animals." All the behavior in the novel is based

on documented chimp behavior and onbehavior that I witnessed among thechimps I met. The depiction of whathappens to Looee in the lab is not thehalf of what happened to Pepper inreality.

Meeting the chimps made me rethinkeverything I knew about psychology,empathy, will, politics and cruelty. Idon't think we can talk about beinghuman without first acknowledging andexploring the fact that we are a speciesof ape. That novel was my attempt tolook squarely at what other apes arelike.

ABOUT THE VIDEOThe chimpanzee starring in the video

you just saw is Ayumu, and he is doing amemory exercise. Ayumu has proven thatchimpanzees have the incredible abilityto memorize and place a sequence ofnumbers in the correct order after seeingthem for less than a second. This task isnearly impossible for a human to do. Goahead, TRY IT.

Ayumu was born on April 24th,2000, to parents Ai and Akira at thePrimate Research Institute at KyotoUniversity. He is a part of the renownedAi Project (named after his mother)

directed by Dr. Tetsuro Matsuzawa. Theproject seeks to better understandchimpanzee intelligence.

For more videos and informationabout Ayumu and the Ai Project, pleaseclick HERE.

This video was made possible byspecial permission from Dr. TetsuroMasuzawa of Kyoto University's PrimateResearch Institute and Ayumu, for beingsuch a star.