A hallucinatory exploration into the origins of humans and
human language perfect for fans of Brian Evenson and Eimear McBride.
Lucy, a young woman with an uncertain past, finds herself
thrust into a mysterious anthropology museum that converts into a disco club
each night. Moving through its labyrinthine galleries, she tries to construct
an origin story for herself and for her species. But as the night progresses,
her grip on language and identity slips away until the exhibit captions rupture
the text, transporting us to East Africa, where the lives of three
people—British anthropologist Mary Leakey, an Indian indentured laborer
building the Uganda Railway, and a curator with too many secrets—interweave to
reveal the darker side of the search for origins.
Surreal, spiraling, and daringly innovative, Habilis
is all at once a historical reconstruction, a psychological horror, a mystery,
a ghost story, and a creation myth. But above all, it is a meditation on
language, desire, and the stories we tell about ourselves—especially those that
might unravel us.