Claire Cameron grew up in Toronto and studied at Queen’s University. She’s led canoe trips in Algonquin Park and worked as an instructor for Outward Bound, teaching mountaineering, climbing, and white-water rafting in Oregon. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Globe and Mail, Salon, and the Rumpus. She is a staff writer at The Millions. Her award-winning novels include The Line Painter and The Bear, and her latest novel The Last Neanderthal was a national bestseller and a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Prize for Fiction. She lives in Toronto with her husband and two sons.

THE LAST NEANDERTHAL

Forty thousand years ago, a small family of Neanderthals lives in isolation, carving out a simple but meaningful life together amidst the unforgiving landscape. The oldest siblings, Girl and Him, are coming of age and the clan plans to travel to the annual meeting place to find them both a mate. But as one danger after another takes a toll, Girl is left on her own to care for the foundling Runt, and sets out on a journey to find out what lies beyond her family’s familiar lands.

In the present day, archeologist Rosamund Gale makes an unprecedented find of Neanderthal remains just as she finds out she is pregnant. Racing to complete the excavation before her baby comes, she longs to understand the full meaning of her startling discovery and what it tells us about the dawn of humanity.

DIVE DEEPER

Features:

• “Novelist Claire Cameron dramatizes the debate that the last Neanderthal didn’t come before the first human” — National Post
• “A question for author Claire Cameron: Are you a political writer?” — Maclean’s
• “ Neanderthals: They’re Just Like Us ” — The New York Times
• “Review: Claire Cameron’s The Last Neanderthal looks at two women separated by history” — The Globe and Mail

Videos:

• “The stories of The Last Neanderthal” — YouTube
• “From the Town of Bedrock | Claire Cameron | A Word on Words” — YouTube

BIONIC FUEL RECOMMENDED BY CLAIRE

Available at the pop up bookstore during the conference or at Shelf Life Books