APE HOUSE, BY SARA GRUEN, ALLEN & UNWIN, $32.99.
I so loved Gruen’s last book, Water For Elephants, that I’ve been waiting for this one. And it starts with a bang – a fire-bomb, actually, thrown by animal activists trying to “liberate” a family of Bonobo apes from a research facility, where they are being taught to communicate with humans.
Their language skills are so astonishing – and the Bonobos so loveable – that a rogue businessman has the idea of making them stars of a reality TV program. A mixture of romance and drama follows as their injured keeper and an out-of-work journalist work to free the apes – while raising questions about the relationship between humans and creatures with whom we share 99.4 per cent of our DNA. Gruen has done her homework and loves her animals, but her good intentions do rather get in the way.
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