Primal Tears, the graphic novel, is searching for a publisher
Primal Tears, the novel, was published in 2005.
Primal
Tears is the story of Sage, born to a young woman who
has volunteered to be a surrogate mother for an endangered
bonobo chimpanzee. The process goes awry, and Sage, a lovable
youngster, is neither completely one species nor the other.
When her existence becomes public knowledge, she needs all
the best characteristics of both species to find a place for
herself in our human-dominated world.
Book
Info: Frog/North Atlantic Books, 2005, $13.95
Praise for Primal Tears:
“PRIMAL TEARS is a high-concept exciting adventure story.... I liked it. It is well written…. I am altogether impressed.”
-- R. Crumb, cartoonist
“PRIMAL
TEARS is primal storytelling, thoughtful and passionate. Kelpie Wilson
wonderfully expands our definitions of human and family.”
-- Greg Bear, author of Blood Music, The Forge of God, Darwin's Radio, and Quantico
"What
a great book! I loved it, and found it to be totally enthralling. As I
read, I felt drawn deeper and deeper into a primal sense of hope. Not a
naive hope, not wishful thinking, but a hope arising out of a sense of
the immensity of human evolution and the profundity of out
interconnectedness with all of life. I hope everyone on our dear and
endangered Earth reads this book."
-- John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America and Healthy at 100
"PRIMAL
TEARS is a novel of tremendous power. Passionate and erotic, at times
tenderly lyrical, it confronts head-on, without flinching, brutal
environmental and feminist politics. Its protagonist, Sage, is unique,
magical, and haunting."
-- Kate Wilhelm, author of The Unbidden Truth, Clear and Convincing Proof, and Skeletons
"Kelpie
Wilson’s PRIMAL TEARS has rounded, memorable characters, evocative
descriptions, lively dialogue, an exciting plot, … and an understated,
evenhanded wit that is very engaging. … It is a clear-eyed, courageous
look at some of the most denied and neglected threats to the biosphere
and the place of humans in it."
-- David Rains Wallace, author of The Monkey’s Bridge and The Bonehunters’ Revenge
Primal
Tears Reviews
What
Are We? Kelpie Wilson's Primal Tears Offers One Response
"Not
long after 9/11, I found I had a sudden intense hunger to know what
was irreducibly human, to know exactly what we are, described with
the precision, detail and accuracy of science. My archaeologist
husband suggested lists of anthropology texts. My colleague, Truthout
Environment Editor Kelpie Wilson, sent me to Steven Mithin's wonderful
"After the Ice." But for all these books' inherent interest,
I did not find any answers there. On vacation this summer, I reread
Kelpie's intriguing first novel, "Primal Tears." While
Wilson also does not offer "answers" to the what-is-a-human
question, she takes her readers down a suggestive and intriguing
line of inquiry."
-- Leslie
Thatcher, Truthout
Read
the review and an interview with author here
“This
is a book that deals with serious issues and is unwavering in all
of its explorations. Top-notch near-future ecological speculation”
--
John Joseph Adams, Orson Scott Card’s
Intergalactic Medicine Show
Read
the whole review here
“Wilson's
storytelling talent really shines in this first novel...the main character
will feel like a good friend by the time you finish the book. And
you'll finish it fast—she has written a real page-turner...
In addition to raising some serious issues, she has permeated the
book with spirit and hope, particularly in the person of the main
character, Sage, whose sweetness is like hope itself.”
-- Karen Wood-Campbell, amazon.com reviewer
Read
the whole review here
Anneli
Rufus writes in the East Bay Express:
Bonobos
are the beasts du jour. Social critics laud them for having so much
sex, some of it bi, much of it face to face, and for being a female-dominant
species whose males would rather boink than fight. It's not the
boinking that matters most to Wilson. "The big news about bonobos
is not the sex but their peacefulness. People crave peace and bonobos
show us how one peaceful primate society is organized. Human aggression
is destroying the planet. Bonobos are a brand-new story."
Read
the whole review here
More
Reviews:
Bi
Writers Association
Dr.
Susan Block
Science
Fiction Weekly
Sentient
Times
Terrain
Earth
Island Journal