Life As Told by a Sapiens to a Neanderthal

Prehistory is all around us. We just need to know where to look.

Juan Jose Millas has always felt like he doesn’t quite fit into human society. Sometimes he wonders if he is even a Homo sapiens at all, or something simpler. Perhaps he is a Neanderthal who somehow survived? So he turns to Juan Luis Arsuaga, one of the world’s leading palaeontologists and a super-smart sapiens, to explain why we are the way we are and where we come from.

Over the course of many months, the two visit different places, many of them common scenes of our daily lives, and others unique archaeological sites. Arsuaga tries to teach the Neanderthal how to think like a sapiens and, above all, that prehistory is not a thing of the past- that traces of humanity through the millennia can be found anywhere, from a cave or a landscape to a children’s playground or a toy shop.

Millas and Arsuaga invite you on a journey of wonder which unites scientific discovery with the greatest human invention of all- the art of storytelling.



‘Millas is one of the writers with the most truth per square centimetre of a page.’
-Antonio Iturbe, What to Read

‘We like wise men to explain things to us and understand each other. This is what Arsuaga does wonderfully in his book, a luminous treatise on life, the universe and human existence.’
-Victor M. Amela, La Vanguardia

‘Juan Jose Millas is the owner of a fantastic territory of unquestionable personality.’
-J.E. Ayala-Dip, El Pais

Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Imprint: Scribe Australia
Publication date: 31/05/2022