AL OTRO LADO DE LA NIEBLA

In Al otro lado de la niebla, his first novel, Juan Luis Arsuaga combines the evocative legends of the wise elders of the tribe with his great palaeontological knowledge. A story with mythical resonances in which almost everything that is told is true and in which the prehistoric person that hides in us will undoubtedly be able to recognise himself.

Many thousands of years ago, in a world that has little in common with our world, yet was also ours, a boy called Piojo (Louse), who has only known cruelty from the man who has been his caretaker since he was orphaned, decides to strike out on his own struggle for existence. Piojo grows in his search for a place among his people, learning to handle himself in a world that is hostile but, at the same time, offers him a unique opportunity to survive and find happiness at last. Following the success of The Chosen Species and The Neanderthal's Necklace, renowned paleontologist Juan Luis Arsuaga, co-director of the Atapuerca excavations, has written his first novel with the declared intent to combine his immense wealth of scientific knowledge with the evocative legends of wise men all over the world, including our own land. The result is a story with mythic resonance and in which the inner prehistoric man we all hide within will no doubt recognize himself. Dr. Arsuaga (Madrid, 1954) is a Professor of Paleontology at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid and Director of the Human Evolution and Behavior Institute (UCM-ISCIII). He is a member of the American National Academy of Sciences, Member of the Musée de l'Homme of Paris and vice-president of the Comission of Human Paleontology of the International Union Quaternary Research., Visiting Professor at the University College of London and co-director of excavations at Sierra de Atapuerca (WorldHeritage Site). He is the recipient of many national and international awards, among which the renowned Príncipe de Asturias in 1997. Dr. Arsuaga is a regular contributor to Nature, Science, American Journal of Physical Anthropology and editor of the Journal of Human Evolution as well as a regular lecturer at the universities of London, Cambridge, Berkeley, New York, Tel Aviv, Zurich, among others. He is the author of more than a dozen works. Among them, one should mention the perennial long-sellers: La especie elegida (1997), El collar de Neandertal (1999) and Amalur (2002), all published by Temas de Hoy; La saga humana (Edaf, 2007), El reloj de Mr. Darwin (Temas de Hoy, 2009) and El primer viaje de nuestra vida (Temas de Hoy, 2012), El sello indeleble (Debate, 2013), co-written with Manuel Martín-Loeches, and Vida. Una gran historia (Destino, 2019), published as a lead title and internationally published.