At least that's what we're promised by the good people at Little, Brown publishers.
They've sent word to the bookselling industry that they will be releasing a top-secret, triple hush-hush book on May 20th. The won't release the name of the book. They won't release the author of the book. They won't release the cover art of the book.
But here's what they do tell us: This book will change the way we understand the human race.
Damn! That's quite a claim! Almost makes me want to head out to Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming to await this earth-shattering event.
Let's wallow in the hype below the fold... (and take the poll!)
Given that Little, Brown is promising us that the very way we understand the human race is about to change, there is surprisingly little out there on the internets. My first inkling of this came from a communication sent out to bookstores, but I have found no public announcement by Little, Brown.
No word yet, either, if Geraldo Rivera will be hosting the release.
Here's what we do know. The book's ISBN is 9780316070089 (that's International Standard Book Number, in case you didn't know...every book has its own unique number, registered with the International ISBN Agency.) We know that the Museum of Natural History in New York City will be giving a press conference on the book on May 19th, the day prior to publication. And we know there is a History Channel program on the book.
Search Barnes & Noble's website and the only info you get is the price and the fact that it's 320 pages.
320 pages! That's all it's going to take to upend our conception of our existence! Wow, who edited this, I wonder. I've also heard that the book is categorized as "Anthropology" for shelf location purposes.
The bookselling site E-Campus does list an author: Lucy Highfield. But searches on this name don't turn up anything of interest, so we have to assume this is a fake name (and perhaps alludes to Lucy, the famous Australopithecus fossil.)
The most cryptic and extended mention of this book can be found on the website Library Bound (scroll down to the eighth book listed), where we read:
Lying inside a high security vault, deep within the heart of one of the world’s leading museums, is a discovery that will change textbooks, change science, and change how we understand the human race. The author of Untitled has been given exclusive access to all of the research and the team of top scientists who have been validating the discovery, the announcement of which will send shock waves around the world. The discovery will be announced at a major press conference followed by a media blitz and a documentary that will air on the History Channel following the press conference.
Amazon is the online bookseller that inadvertently spills the beans, however. You know how they are with their 'technical glitches.' Anyway, they currently list the author as Colin Tudge.
Tudge has written on a wide variety of topics, from evolution to genetics to agriculture. He is also known to hold some bizarre ideas about human beings, as exemplified by this quote from his web site:
CT nurses the conviction that human beings are basically both sensible and nice and that if only democracy could be made to work—creating societies based on people's real desires and values, as opposed to those assumed by economists and governments—then the world would be a much better place. After so many decades of muddle-headedness and abuse, it may well be too late to keep the world in a tolerable state. Yet this still may be achievable, and is surely worth a try.
Well! Of all the crackpot ideas!
So get your affairs in order, folks. You only have twelve days to prepare for the fact that OUR VERY UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN RACE IS ABOUT TO BE CHANGED!!!!!