The Last Men in the North

Two tribes of humans once lived by each other in adjacent valleys. One tribe were the humans we see about us today, while the other was a sub-group of the Neanderthals, the Denisovans. Recently it has been discovered that some Eurasians have 1-4% of Neanderthal genomes. So, if you look especially closely at your family, friends and neighbours, you may just see one or two who have these ancient humans in their ancestry. This book tells how these ancestors of ours learned from each other, sometimes killed one another, and occasionally grew to love and care for each other. The two main characters, who first meet as boys, are Rat, a future Shaman in his tribe of humans, and Brak who grows to become the Chief of his tribe of Denisovans. There are many other characters, including two strong women, Culu and Suffi, who play a major part in the story of their tribes. One creature, a wolf called Roden, deeply affects the lives of Rat and Brak. Unbeknown to the men, they are also visited at times by a mysterious snow leopard that comes to aid them in a time of crisis. Because of age and infirmity, Brak and Rat are left behind by their tribes when the increasingly cold weather makes survival in the valleys impossible. Alone at first, they join forces to try to survive the coming winter together. This book is the story of their desperate efforts to see Spring arrive in the valleys once more.