Hunt, trek, and feast among Neanderthals in this stunning novel by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies.

This was a different voice; not the voice of the people. It was the voice of other.

When spring comes, the people leave their winter cave, foraging for honey, grubs, and the hot richness of a deer''s brain. They awaken the fire to heat their naked bodies, lay down their thorn bushes, and share pictures in their minds. But strange things are happening: inexplicable scents and sounds. Unimaginable beasts are half-glimpsed in the forest; upright creatures of bone-faces and deerskins. What the people don''t know is that their day is already over ...

Extraordinary ... Genius ... Remarkable in the literature of the twentieth century.

Ben Okri

A stun gun to read ... Truly a masterpiece.

Monique Roffey

An earthquake in the petrified forests of the English novel.

Arthur Koestler

An astonishing, underrated novel.

Robert MacFarlane

Beautiful, powerful ... A visionary dream . Shakespearean.

Ted Hughes

A master fabulist, and a brilliantly creative interpreter of remote history ... An iconoclast.

John Fowles

A tour de force ... Genius.

Daily Telegraph

Alarming, eye-opening, desolating, mind-invading and unique.

New Statesman