Praise for A Primate’s Memoir

“The odds would seem long against finding a book by a writer who has the various skills to tranquilize wild East African baboons with a blowgun, explain the scientific implications of his work, negotiate treacherous primate power struggles (especially those of H. sapiens), and write about it all with great wit and humanity. But A Primate’s Memoir is such a book, and Robert M. Sapolsky is such a writer.”

—George Packer, author of The Village of Waiting and Blood of the Liberals

“A witty concoction blending field biology, history, hilarious cross-cultural mishaps, and hair-raising adventure. What Jane Goodall did for chimpanzees, Birute Galdikas for orangutans, and Dian Fossey for gorillas, Sapolsky does in spades for baboons.”

— Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“Mr. Sapolsky has been to the end of the road and come back with some of the best stories you will ever hear, and, in the process, has put his finger on some vast, comic common denominator. What you have in your hands is the reason to read books.”

—Pete Dexter, author of Paris Trout and The Paperboy

“For all its high spirits and black humor, A Primate’s Memoir is a powerful meditation on the biological origins of baboon and human misery, as well as a naturalist’s coming-of-age story comparable to Jane Goodall’s and E. O. Wilson’s…. As a memoirist, Sapolsky is a mensch, a prince among primates.”

—Caroline Fraser, Outside

“This engrossing account of Robert Sapolsky’s life in science, set down with style and force, is brilliantly informative (baboons have long memories, and seek vengeance!) and heartbreakingly acute in its rendering of African lives, terrains, fates.”

—Norman Rush, author of Mating

“A gem … sidesplitting vignettes about monkey politics alternate with equally hilarious tales of misadventure on the backroads of East and Central Africa…. [A Primate’s Memoir] will keep you chuckling from start to finish.”

—Unmesh Kher, Time

“A Primate’s Memoir is witty, erudite, and full of baboons. What could be bad?”

—Allegra Goodman, author of Kaaterskill Falls

“A tale of adventure, science—and corruption. Four stars.”

—Sharon Begley, Newsweek

“At the end of A Primate’s Memoir, I felt as though I’d been on a guided tour of Africa with a wise, soulful, funny, generous, and deeply intelligent guide. Loved him, loved his insights about these strange and distant cultures, loved his baboons.”

—Caroline Knapp, author of Pack of Two

“Filled with cynicism and awe, passion and humor, this memoir is both an absorbing account of a young man’s growing maturity and a tribute to the continent that, despite its troubles and extremes, held him in its thrall.”

— Publishers Weekly (starred)

“Touching … Honor is a word that echoes in the reader’s consciousness throughout this funny, often elegiac rendering of a remarkable place and some magnificent creatures that call it home.”

—Margaria Fichtner, The Miami Herald

“Powerful … He tells fascinating stories that run an emotional gamut from absurdly hilarious to profoundly troubling, and those stories compel the kind of response that great stories always elicit—you can’t stop thinking about them…. [The stories] will stick with you long after you’ve put down A Primate’s Memoir.”

—Jim Ericson and Patty Griffin Jensen, Minneapolis Star Tribune

“What Jane Goodall’s work might be like if she had a sense of humor.”

— Talk

“Engaging … Sapolsky’s storytelling gifts make this book difficult to put down … his scientific references [are] straightforward but enlightening … poignant.”

—John Freeman, The Plain Dealer

“Ceaselessly brilliant … wonderful … there is surprise and great drama.”

—Arthur Salm, The San Diego Union-Tribune

“To his credit and our benefit, Sapolsky’s depiction of the African bush isn’t shrouded in either gauzy, neocolonial paternalism or harsh, anticolonial righteousness. His stories are told with the hilarious realism of someone who’d been there…. When the book is finished, we wish it wasn’t.”

—Rodger Brown, Atlanta Journal-Constitution