When it was first announced in The New York Times in July of 2008, Anthill, by the legendary, world-renowned scientist, E. O. Wilson, promised to be one the most exciting novels of 2010. It most certainly did not disappoint. In what quickly became one of the most talked about books of the year, Anthill almost immediately found its place both on the Times bestseller list and numerous award short-lists. Having already won the 2010 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for fiction, Anthill has drawn extensively from Wilson's own youth in rural Alabama to evoke the dreams and nightmares of a boy whose very existence is inextricably linked with the natural swamps and forests of the old South. Wilson has created fictional Nokobee County where young Raffael Semmes Cody, the child of an unhappy marriage between a Southern, redneck father and a mother from a faded aristocratic family, communes with the ants and frogs of the local, but endangered swamplands. As Wilson was himself, Raff is an extraordinary child, who first distinguishes himself in the Boy Scouts and then goes on to Florida State University, where he becomes a spectacular student. There is a middle section to this novel called The Anthill Chronicles which is like no other in contemporary fiction: for in these four chapters, first seen in The New Yorker, we witness evolution in action, the rise and fall of four separate ant colonies, as witnessed by Raff himself. The novel is full of some of the most lyrical, often gorgeous naturalistic writing ever seen in fiction, and it has resonated with everyone, regardless of age, and has even satisfied the same sophisticated literary readers and science readers who made The Naturalist such a huge bestseller.
Industry Reviews
"[Wilson smuggles] gems of empirical knowledge across the literary border to create fiction with unusually rewarding heft." -- Barbara Kingsolver - The New York Times Book Review
"Part epic-inspired adventure story, part philosophy-of-life, part many-layered mid-century Alabama viewed in finely observed detail, part ant life up close, part lyrical hymn to the wonders of earth...yes, all of these." -- Margaret Atwood - New York Review of Books
"One part of Anthill, by the world's leading myrmecologist, demonstrates that in Mr Wilson ants have found not only their Darwin but also their Homer...The tale within a tale is an astonishing literary achievement; nobody but Mr Wilson could have written it, and those who read it will tread lightly in the forest, at least for a while...his evocation of their ways is a more powerful tool for raising ecological awareness than any Disneyfication is likely to be." -- The Economist
"Wilson's foray into fiction allows him to write more expressively, psychologically, even spiritually about the great web of life, humankind included, and the irrefutable rules for ecological survival...A teacher as well as a scientist, Wilson uses the prism of fiction to cast new light on the grand unifying lesson of nature: all of us earthlings, all of life's astonishing creations, thrive or fail together." -- Donna Seaman - Chicago Tribune
"The astute, knowledgeable, amazing structure of Anthill is a masterpiece of craft, a fictional embodiment of the ant." -- Sue Brannon Walker, Poet Laureate of Alabama - Alabama Press-Register
"[A] beautifully written coming-of-age novel about a young boy in Alabama. The highly respected author and entomologist may be sneaking some science down the throats of self-respecting fiction readers everywhere with the tale of a boy-turned-environmental lawyer who tries to save wildlife, but we hardly mind." -- The Daily Beast
"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." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review
"The savage conflicts between the Trailhead and Waterside colonies are as dramatic as any epic of Herodotus or Thucydides, histories Wilson evokes in his characterization of the tiny warriors as myrmidons and hoplites." -- Harvey Freedenberg - Shelf Awareness
"A triumphant epic of life by the world's greatest naturalist. This is War and Peace-among the ants, the land developers, and the environmentalists and preachers. Marvel at E. O. Wilson's wondrous and captivating creation." -- Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute
"It's slightly mysterious how E. O. Wilson manages to combine so many different talents in one person-from close observation to grand theorizing to deep compassion to well-paced, lively writing. (If he were actually an ant, he'd be the warrior and the drone and the queen and everyone else too.) This novel will remind people of all his gifts and introduce them to some new ones!" -- Bill McKibben, author of Radio Free Vermont
