DEVOLUTION
A Novel by Peter Clenott
What does it truly mean to be “Human”?
Chiku Flynn wasn’t raised to be human. Born in the Congolese rainforest, she spends her first eleven years as part of an experiment. For her, the aboriginal-the primitive-is “normal.”
Just after her eleventh birthday, Chiku witnesses the horrifying death of her mother, and her father sends her “home” to the United States, to a normal teenager’s life. But she can’t adapt. She is the proverbial wild child-obstinate and defiant.
When her father disappears, sixteen-year-old Chiku heads back to the primordial jungle, where she uncovers her own dark past and puts to use her greatest skill: she can communicate via sign language with the wild chimpanzees of Chimp Island.
But there is turmoil in the rain forest — civil war, environmental upheaval ... and murder. The lives of the chimps and the safety of the people she loves depend upon one teenaged girl who refuses to be messed with — Chiku Flynn.
Reviews
“This book succeeds in mixing multiple different elements in a gripping and unusual way, creating a story that is both original and a joy to read. Love, mystery, and suspense team together in the tale of Chiku’s rebellion, which takes place in the well-described setting of Africa, complete with the history of a country ravaged by war. This book is by no means an easy read, but the only complications arise from all of the elements coming together, and since those very components are what make this story so compelling, it is hard to resist the story that Devolution tells.”
— Red City Review
“I was reeled in hook, line, and sinker. I’d highly recommend [this book] to older teens through adults … Grab your copy today and meet the girl who wouldn’t be tamed … nor should she be.”
— Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers
“Peter Clenott’s story of a troubled teen searching for her father in the African jungle skillfully combines the breakneck pace of a thriller with the emotional tug of a coming of age novel while providing a fascinating glimpse into the relationship between people and chimpanzees that will leave readers questioning which species is more humane. A thought-provoking read.”
— Tasha Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of Behind the Shattered Glass
“Devolution is an enthralling, action-packed and fast-paced jungle thriller from beginning to end. The story is set in modern day Africa and is centered on the book’s heroine, Chiku, a firecracker of a girl full of energy and spirit. She can also talk to chimpanzees! The backdrops to the story are as old as time itself — war, racism, hunger and greed. Can a strong-willed sixteen-year-old girl and a band of chimpanzees survive in war-torn Africa? Or will death find its way into this strange yet wonderful family! This book is an interesting coming of age tale full of intrigue, wonder, romance and danger. A truly exciting and original read! This is not your grandparent’s Tarzan tale!”
— Christopher P. Obert, founder of the New England Authors Expo
“If it takes a bipolar teenager and some chimpanzees to save their piece of the Congo, then Chiku and her primate friends are the ones to do it. Label them superheroes. Peter Clenott has captured diverse characters in a vibrant setting and added snappy dialogue for this unique and interesting novel.”
— Shirley Ann Howard, author of the Tales series
Devolution
by Peter Clenott
Published by Imajin Books
Publication Date: August 1, 2013
ISBN softcover: 978-1-927792-14-8
ISBN e-book: 978-1-927792-13-1
Devolution | Synopsis
Chiku Flynn wasn’t raised to be a human. Born in Maiko National Park in the Congolese rain forest, Chiku spent the first eleven years of her life as part of an experiment conducted by her parents.
Primatologists Seth Flynn and Samantha Burchill loved their daughter but had no difficulty releasing her into the wild to be studied alongside the chimpanzees of DEVOLUTION. Impulsive and spontaneous, Chiku proved an apt student, ultimately surpassing her parents in her ability to mingle and communicate with the forest chimpanzees. Pan, the primary male. Scallion, Chiku’s birth mate. Scopes, the provocateur. She plays with them, fashions tools with them, sleeps in their nests, hunts and forages. For Chiku the aboriginal, the primitive, is normal. Then just after her eleventh birthday, everything changes. Chiku witnesses the horrifying death of her mother, pulled out of their boat by a Mamba River crocodile, and her father at last sends her ‘home’ to the United States and to a normal teenager’s life.
The problem is, Chiku can’t adapt. Five years and a dozen schools can’t bring her in line. Therapists and psychiatrists can’t figure her out. The pills, when she decides to take them, have no effect. She prefers rolling her own joints and risking life and limb on crazy urban stunts on her roller blades. She is the proverbial wild child, obstinate, defiant, and hopeless. There is a dark side to her past that no one can penetrate. Life is without direction or goal. It is simply experienced and often with catastrophic results. Then Seth Flynn disappears, the chimpanzees he has been studying begin invading the local human settlement, and Chiku’s life is thrown onto a second life-altering course, only this time she is going back to Africa, back to the jungle, where she can put to profound use the one great skill she has: she can communicate with her father’s abandoned chimpanzees using sign language.
The rain forest is in turmoil when Chiku arrives with her older half-sister Cary, a journalist who does not like or trust her defiant sibling. Civil War has led to a massing of refugees on the outskirts of the national park. Poachers are hunting and killing chimpanzees for food or sale. Mining interests and timber companies want to displace the chimpanzees for their own profit. Chiku’s father may well have been a victim of their desires. With the human world threatening to destroy the rain forest and turn Seth Flynn’s chimpanzees into something they have never been, Chiku must step in and reclaim her life and that of the beings she grew up loving.
DEVOLUTION is sixteen-year old Chiku Flynn’s line in the sand. She is naïve and fearless, guts and fists rather than charm and make-up, a tomboy growing fast into womanhood. The lives of the chimpanzees and the safety of the refugees depend upon her. The affections of three young men hang upon her adolescent desires: 17-year old Tim Hayfield, the deaf son of missionaries; Mark Forsberg, the ‘older man,’ the PhD candidate studying chimpanzees; Darius Ojukwu, the Hutu teenager conscripted into the wars as a twelve-year old boy. Chiku is the focus of bispecies attention and the target of assassins intent on finishing their work. Bruised and jaded by life before she has tasted her first kiss, Chiku Flynn is not a girl to mess with. Yet, if anyone knows anything about love and true devotion, it is Chiku Flynn.