A debut novel from Vermont author Kim MacQueen uses apes to explore what makes us human.
The book is called "Out Out: A Novel of Women and Apes."
In the novel, Deb Solomon is suffering from post-partum depression, a failing marriage and a career in free-fall.
She decides to take a job in a university ape laboratory where she becomes obsessed with the lab’s brilliant and controversial female director.
As Deb gets more drawn in to this primate kingdom, the thin line separating apes and humans begins to disappear, and "Out Out" becomes what one reviewer has dubbed an "interspecies family romance".
Kim MacQueen teaches writing at Champlain College.
VPR’s Neal Charnoff sat down with MacQueen to talk about the book.
Kim MacQueen will be appearing at Phoenix Books in Burlington, Tuesday evening, March 19th at 6:30.
Click "Listen" to hear the interview.