By Roger Fouts and Stephen Tukel Mills

For 30 years Roger Fouts has pioneered communication with chimpanzees through sign language--beginning with a mischievous baby chimp named Washoe. This remarkable book describes Fouts's odyssey from novice researcher to celebrity scientist to impassioned crusader for the rights of animals. Living and conversing with these sensitive creatures has given him a profound appreciation of what they can teach us about ourselves. It has also made Fouts an outspoken opponent of biomedical experimentation on chimpanzees. A voyage of scientific discovery and interspecies communication, this is a stirring tale of friendship, courage, and compassion that will change forever the way we view our biological--and spritual--next of kin.

"Next of Kin is more than a book about the theory and practice of science. It's a love story. What Roger Fouts has learned from chimpanzees is that Descartes was wrong. Other animals do have minds. The reason chimpanzees are chosen for experiments is that they are so like us; our compassion should be greater...You cannot read this book and stay neutral." LA Times

"A welcome rarity among science books written for the general public. It is modest, warm, generous, funny, exciting, and deeply affecting." San Francisco Chronicle

"Beyond its exuberant storytelling value, this book contains ideas as revolutionary as any since The Origin of Species." Seattle Times

"An exhilarating book that blurs the boundaries between human nature and chimp nature... This wonderful book will enthrall readers while making them think deeply about what, if anything, separates us from other primates." Publishers Weekly