A man. A woman. A chimp. Each carries secret pain. Each must learn to trust, to communicate, to find healing.

Kate and Marc work for the Dayton Zoo, specialists in primates, both peers and rivals. Kate’s time in the field convinced her of the importance of habitat protection and naturalization of chimpanzees. Marc argues that zoos are “a finger in the extinction dyke.” They don’t trust each other, and are attracted to each other.

In comes Eve, a chimpanzee violently taken from her mother when a baby, then used as a lab animal. She is traumatized, unsocialized, and pregnant. Kate wants to quickly socialize Eve with the gentler chimps. Marc wants to give Eve time to trust and adapt. Marc’s gentleness and care is making advances, teaching Eve to communicate through sign language.

The zoo director is concerned about the bottom line. He pressures the staff to quickly advance Eve’s introduction to the pack so he can use her and her baby as promotion for financial profit. It brings conflict between Marc and Kate, threatening their new relationship.

Communication is a central theme. There is Marc communicating with Eve. Marc’s mother is deaf and mute; sign language was his first language. His mother has retreated from the world, overly dependent on him. He rushes home from work so she isn’t alone after the day help leaves. Kate’s mother has primary progressive aphasia, unable to communicate in words. The assisted living care facility doesn’t know how to cope with her limitations.

It takes time for Marc and Kate to trust each other with their stories. To trust each other at work. When they do, it impacts both their families in a positive way, Marc’s mother showing Kate’s mother a new way of communicating.

This is how we fail, again and again…but language is what we have and if we give up and let it fail, there is nothing left.
from Language of Kin by Lynne Hugo

Our family has adopted puppy mill breeder dogs. The females spent years in cages, giving birth, and the male lived outdoors, suffering from untreated broken bones, frostbite, and allergies. Like Eve, shut down and scared when she arrives at the zoo, our Suki hid in a corner, untrusting and fearful. It took days of sitting and talking with her, caring for her, before she would come to me in the evening for doggie cookies. It took a year before she began to act like a real dog, and even into her senior years, she shyly came from her corner in the evening, smiling, to shake and roll on her back and beg for treats. We had adopted Kara, the male dog from a puppy mill, so she could socialize with another dog. When he came and snuggled next to her, she was uncertain. But they bonded, and Kara taught Suki how to play.

So I understood the methods employed by both Kate and Marc, the need for an animal to socialize with their own kind, and the need for them to learn to trust those who care for them.

I read this book over 24 hours. The original setting, the central issue of how to deal with Eve, and the deep understanding of human nature elevated the story and kept my interest.

I received a free book from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

This story is so powerful! I settled into it and next thing I knew, it was 5AM. I just could not put it down until I finished it.

This is a beautifully written story of the healing power of language across species. The first three pages are hard to read, and some may want to skip those pages. It describes the scene of Eve, the chimpanzee at the center of the story, being ripped from her mother by poachers and later sold to a medical research lab. Eve eventually is sent to the Dayton Zoo in Ohio. Primate keepers Kate and Marc, despite their difference of opinion of what the job should entail, are assigned to integrate Eve into the zoo’s chimp community.

Kate and Marc do find common ground. They each are caregivers for their mothers. Marc’s mother has been deaf her entire life, and after the death of her husband, she has isolated herself. Kate’s mother has aphasia as the result of a stroke. Aphasia has affected her ability to process, use, and/or understand language. This connection challenges them as they continue to clash on how Eve should be handled, especially as they recover from a crisis at the zoo that puts them all in danger.

My favorite parts of the book are when Marc is working alone with Eve, trying to earn her trust, teaching her to communicate with him. I also enjoyed the few scenes written from Eve’s perspective. These portions of the book displayed extreme sensitivity in the use of words to make me feel the emotions I did as I read. The characters, with all their flaws, are likeable, realistic.

This book was well-researched, and I enjoyed learning new things from it. I have always disliked the use of animals for various kinds of research. I did not realize though that apes are used because their DNA matches that of humans so closely.

I received an advance copy of the book. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

This was an intense read with powerful messages about communication in both the human and animal existence. It's also one of the few books that I've read recently that I wish I could give more than 5 stars to. I went into the story completely blind of the plot and was hooked by the first chapter.

Eve was a chimpanzee who was taken by poachers to sell to a research lab for animal experiments. When she's moved to the Dayton Zoo, after years of experiments, she has to be taught how to live with other animals and learn that not all people are cruel and uncaring. At the Zoo, Kate and Mark are her main trainers. Kate has worked in the jungle and worked with animals at the zoo for a long time. She feels that no animal should be kept in captivity and should be left in their own habitat and Mark fees that zoos are the last chance to keep animals from becoming extinct when their world is diminishing from less jungle space available due to modern buildings. Mark is given the lead role in getting Eve ready to join the other animals but then he goes off track and tries to teach Eve how to truly communicate with humans by using sign language. Even though Kate and Mark, see things differently, they have a lot in common. Kate's mother is in a nursing home but has pretty much given up on life. She has aphasia and is unable to communicate. The nursing home wants to move her to assisted living but Kate is sure that her mother still has thoughts but is unable to express them. Mark's mother is deaf and has sequestered herself in her apartment and she has made Mark her main person to communicate with. Even though they greatly differ in their views of animals in zoos, they find common ground when they discover that they are the main caregivers for their mothers and that both mothers have issues with communication with the outside world. Will this common ground lead to a relationship between Kate and Mark or will their divergent views on animals at the zoo, keep them from exploring a relationship with each other?

I really enjoy reading a book that is so well researched that I learn new things. Lynne Hugo has done considerable research on chimpanzees and shared much of it her novel. I had no idea how close the DNA is between humans and chimpanzees - 98% plus the same dna. After I finished the book, I spent time goggling information about chimpanzees and how they'd been used in medical experiments - often in a very cruel manner.

This book basically had everything that I look for in a five star plus read - a fantastic plot with likeable main characters who are very well written plus the opportunity to learn something new. Trust me, this is not a book that you want to miss!!

The Language of Kin grabbed my attention from the get go. The author skillfully brought us into the jungle and made us feel the shocking trauma experienced by chimps stripped from their families and stolen for experimentation purposes — something we conveniently tend to ignore in the name of advances in science. The author makes us understand the pain, confusion and exhaustion these chimps experience and how at the end of their usefulness, they wind up in zoos. How alike the chimps are DNA-wise to humans! We see their adaption to life within the confines of traditional zoos. Theme two….the author deals with the complexity of communication between the humans who care for the chimps, the motives for their work and the parents who shaped the fashion in which they communicate. I loved this book and its interwoven themes. Lynne Hugo is a masterful story teller and a superb writer!

This novel written by Hugo is brilliant. Kate and Marc have many things in common from working at a Zoo in Ohio, to both being caregivers to their mothers. Marc’s mother being deaf and living at home with Marc. Kate’s mother unable to speak and unsure if she could hear while living in an assisted living facility. Marc’s mother Ria uses sign language to start communicating with Dorothy who is Kates mother. Just as Marc has taught Eve the chimp at the zoo to communicate with him and gain her trust. Eve was brought to the zoo from a lab where she was being used for research after she was captured and her mother killed by poachers several years prior.

THE LANGUAGE OF KIN brought me so deep inside the world of the rescued chimp (Eva) portrayed in this novel that, at times, I could barely breathe as I worried about her. Being behind-the-scenes zoo fascinated me endlessly—this is a world I've never seen and now could explore forever. Lynne Hugo portrayed the belief systems and lives of those who work at the zoo in ways I've never considered; her portrayal of the chimp is nothing less than astonishing.

This book was sad as it exposed the cruelty of people towards apes and their use in various experiments. The close match of their DNA to humans makes it seem sensible to use apes in medical experiments but the book tells of horrific things that are done to the apes while in cages, without sunlight or companions all in the name of science. The author also gets the reader thinking about zoos in a new light. Kate and Marc are two of the zoo employees that are charged with taking care of the primates but have different views of what that entails. Never very close, they become attracted to each other when a new chimp, from a science mill, is placed with the zoo. Their relationship becomes strained due to family and their differing viewpoints. This book is deep, not for the feint of heart. Well written. Highly recommended. This is a five star read— I find myself still thinking about the book and wondering about the ending. I appreciate the digital ARC that I received from Amphorae Books and NetGalley.

Powerful one !

This was an intense read, with a very powerful opening scene. And I loved the secondary stories and the representation in the book.