A Beautiful Truth, Colin McAdam
A Beautiful Truth, Colin McAdam
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A Beautiful Truth

Author: Colin McAdam

Narrator: Joe Barrett

Unabridged: 8 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/17/2013

Synopsis

Told simultaneously from the perspective of humans and chimpanzees, A Beautiful Truth—at times brutal, other times deeply moving—is about the simple truths that transcend species, the meaning of family, the lure of belonging, and the capacity for survival.Looeeis forever set apart, a chimp raised by a well-meaning and compassionate human couple in Vermont who cannot conceive a baby of their own. He's not human, but with his peculiar upbringing he is no longer like other chimps. One tragic night Looee's two natures collide, and this unique family is forever changed.At the Girdish Institute in Florida, a group of chimpanzees has been studied for decades. The work at Girdish has proved that chimps have memories and solve problems, that they can learn language and need friends, and that they build complex cultures. They are political, altruistic, and capable of anger and forgiveness. When Looee is moved to the institute, he is forced to try to find a place in this new world.A Beautiful Truth is an epic and heartfelt story about parenthood, friendship, loneliness, fear, and conflict, about the things we hold sacred as humans and how much we have in common with our animal relatives. A novel of great heart and wisdom from a literary master, it exposes the yearnings, cruelty, and resilience of all great apes.

About Colin McAdam

Colin McAdam’s debut novel, Some Great Thing, won the Amazon First Novel Award in Canada and was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book, and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. His second novel, Fall, was short-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was awarded the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize. He has written for Harper’s and lives in Toronto.

About Joe Barrett

Joe Barrett, an actor and Audie Award and Earphones Award–winning narrator, has appeared both on and off Broadway as well as in hundreds of radio and television commercials.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Barbara on October 07, 2013

I liked this book, but I wouldn’t recommend it to the mainstream fiction reader. McAdam has a great idea for this book: tell a story from chimpanzees point of view. But that idea is the cause for the note of caution. When McAdam writes from the chimps points of view, it’s rather chaotic and incredib......more

Goodreads review by Farzana on February 16, 2014

To be honest, I bought this book because I was at this year's Writers' Trust Awards ceremony where Colin McAdam tearfully accept the Rogers' Prize. He was human, humble and unscripted on stage. I don't think he expected to win. He cried through his speech and I wanted to cry with him. McAdam has writ......more

Goodreads review by Ariel on April 01, 2013

ONTARIO literary writer Colin McAdam's compelling third novel manages to be both violent and loving, eloquent and non-verbal. Which is apt for a book that features an ensemble cast of humans and chimpanzees. Those readers shuddering at the prospect of another "animal novel" can rest assured. Like New......more

Goodreads review by Lil on June 11, 2014

This is probably not for everyone, but I thought it was amazing. A very dark novel about how we treat one another (both humans and other great apes) and how much of our behavior is ape with a little bit of lipstick. The writing is told from multiple narrators, including chimpanzees and is a little o......more

Goodreads review by Rachel on March 18, 2013

Colin McAdam could have written the entire book from the point of view of Looee and I would have loved the book just as much. This is an excruciating, heart-breaking, beautiful story of love and family and belonging. Walt and Judy can't have children, and in an unusual turn of events, adopt a chimp......more

Quotes

“Haunting. Heartbreaking…It is a tale of empathy and honesty, deftly told and beautifully rendered.” Will Ferguson, Giller Prize–winning author of 419

“Kafka’s sketch [A Report to an Academy] is an enduring satire on the kinship between humans and primates. McAdam’s novel is an earnest, daring, and insistent attempt to show the moral implications of that kinship.” Globe and Mail (Toronto)

“[A] gut punch of a novel…that’s going to get a lot of people talking. And crying.” Toronto Life

“Award-winning Canadian novelist McAdam has created a robust tale of love, loss, and the complexities of being alive…With concise language, this heartbreaking tale of loneliness and remembrance reminds us that understanding is a process of growth and experience. Readers who enjoyed Benjamin Hale’s The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore will find familiar themes working in McAdam’s latest.” Library Journal (starred review)

“McAdam investigates the social dynamics of great apes within the cages of a Florida research institute…Brimming with ambition, McAdam delivers a thought-provoking foray into the not-so-dissimilar minds of our ape relatives.”  Publishers Weekly

“Joe Barrett’s folksy voice is a great choice for this unusual audiobook…Barrett moves confidently between the family’s nontraditional home and a Florida research institute that specializes in primates. He’s comfortable with the author’s style, which ranges from complex narrative to simple primate-inspired sentences…Barrett is the kind of narrator anyone can embrace.” AudioFile

“Captivating…Grounded in solid research on chimp behavior that, along with McAdam’s distinctive poetic prose, informs readers while enriching a deeply moving story.” Booklist

“McAdam’s language reaches into that mysterious place where a word ends and a feeling begins. A Beautiful Truth is a story about love and beauty and our dreams for our children and our inescapable loneliness. The characters, human and animal, are sad and honest and true. I could not put this novel down, and only when I finished it could I breathe again.” Kim Echlin, author of The Disappeared

Awards

  • Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize
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