An artist’s impression of a Neanderthal woman
Joe McNally/Getty Images
The Naked Neanderthal
Ludovic Slimak (Allen Lane)
FOR most of our existence, Homo sapiens shared the planet with other types of human: the mysterious Denisovans, the diminutive “hobbit” Homo floresiensis, the Neanderthals and perhaps others. But for the past 40,000 years, after our closest relatives, the Neanderthals, died out, we have been alone.
“The Neanderthal no longer exists, except in our minds,” writes Ludovic Slimak in The Naked Neanderthal, published to great acclaim in France last year and now available in …
