Biologist and conservationist E. O. Wilson just released Anthill, a novel about… ants. (I imagine this will be better than the Woody Allen animated flick “Antz,” and can probably tell us a thing or two about human society.)
From Publisher’s Weekly:
A Pulitzer Prize–winning nonfiction author and Harvard entomology professor, Wilson (The Ants) channels Huck Finn in his creative coming-of-age debut novel. Split into three parallel worlds—ants, humans, and the biosphere—the story follows young Raff Cody, who escapes the humid summers in Clayville, Ala., by exploring the remote Nokobee wilderness with his cousin, Junior. In one adventure, sneaking onto the property of a reputed multiple murderer to peek at his rumored 1,000-pound pet alligator, 15-year-old Raff faces down the barrel of a rifle. Raff’s aversion to game hunting, ant fascination, Boy Scout achievements, and Harvard education all support his core need to remain a naturalist explorer. A remarkable center section meticulously details the life and death of an ant colony. Nearing 30, Raff’s desire to preserve the Nokobee reserve from greedy real estate developers galvanizes an effort to protect the sacred land and a surprise violent ending brings everything full circle. Lush with organic details, Wilson’s keen eye for the natural world and his acumen for environmental science is on brilliant display in this multifaceted story about human life and its connection to nature.
New Scientist’s Culture Lab has an interview with E. O. Wilson here:
Why would E. O. Wilson write a novel? He says he hopes Anthill - about militant ants and the coupled fate of humans and nature - will spark a conservation revolution
Why did you feel your novel, Anthill, had to be written?
This is the first time anyone has written about the lives of ants from their point of view. And I think this is the first novel set in the American South that pays close attention to the environment. I have made the environment, the treasured habitat that Raphael Semmes Cody fights to save, a character in the book.
You have said you wanted the book to lay out nature as it is. Why?
Over 90 per cent of novelists present nature simply in terms of its impacts on human emotions. I wanted to develop in vivid detail the living environment - which is so important for the fate of the human characters - as it really is. That’s something really new in this novel, and I hope it takes.
(CultureLab: E. O. Wilson Interview)
(Anthill: A Novel)
