Shadows of Tomorrow

Original title: Demain les ombres

Author: Michel, Noëlle

Publication Date:

January 2023

Pages:

320

Original language and publisher

Territories Handled

Worldwide excl. French

Territories Sold

World English (Simon & Schuster US)
Netherlands (Standaard)

Genre

Literary Fiction

Awards:

  • Grand Prix de La Société des gens de lettres 2023 (longlisted)

Shadows of Tomorrow

Original title: Demain les ombres

Author: Michel, Noëlle

Synopsis

Noëlle Michel’s wonderfully conceived plot recalls classic cinematic memories (Jurassic Park, Hunger Games, The Truman Show, Quest for Fire…) while combining them with contemporary ethical considerations surrounding topics such as our relationships with nature, entertainment, the Other, and life itself. A great escapist novel which overflows with intelligence! – Marie Desmeures, editor at Le bruit du monde

Beyond its multiple and amazing twists, Demain les ombres, brilliant and disturbing, offers valuable philosophical leads by showing how, for the first time in the history of life on earth, in our time, a species is in the process of modify natural evolutionary processes. – Cédric Fabre, Livres Hebdo

Noëlle Michel juggles very subtly between an agile and efficient thriller with interesting philosophical questions. […] In addition to the realism of its description of Neanderthal society, based on meticulous scientific documentation, it is in the variety of these approaches that lies the breathless character of this novel and its great quality. — Le Monde Des Livres

For readers of Margaret Atwood and Emily St John Mandel.

In the not-too-distant future, a race of Neanderthals is recreated to be observed and studied in a reservation…

An inspiring and gripping dystopia, which doubles as a reflection on humanist and ecological issues.

A clan of humans. They hunt and gather; they are born and die. They live in tents made of hide; they paint on the walls of their caves. They pass on the legends of their goddesses, and dance around the fire on festival nights. Their world is the forest which feeds them, and, aside from the fierce cold and illness, the only thing they have to fear is the Beast who prowls the impassable Bounds. They do not know that beyond it an entirely different world exists.

This other world is our world, more or less, located in a not too distant future. The Neanderthal race has been recreated from fragments of DNA and reintroduced in a reservation where they have been observed and studied for several generations. But there are Sapiens coming, and they will soon break through the Bounds…

Marketing Information

  • Marylène Patou-Mathis, prehistoric historian and author of numerous works on the Prehistoric era, including Neanderthal, Une autre humanité (Perrin, 2006) and L’homme préhistorique est aussi une femme (Allary, 2020), proofread and greatly admired Demain les ombres.
  • Initial prit run: 7000 copies