Broken family

Three children, one story....The only reason I'm the one telling it is that I'm the one not currently in a cage.

Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

A story centered around a chimpanzee with a title like We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves sounds like it will be a barrel of laughs. And while Karen Joy Fowler's first-rate 2013 novel is often witty, it is mostly heartbreaking.

Fowler's narrator, Rosemary, spends her first five years of life as part of a science experiment. Her father, a psychology professor in Indiana, wants to raise a human baby with a chimpanzee baby to see how they will influence each other. Their house is filled with chaos and grad students, but also love. Rosemary thinks of Fern as her twin sister, a feeling apparently shared by Fern.

Then suddenly Fern is taken away. The experiment ends. The grad students leave. And the happy family begins to disintegrate. Lowell, Rosemary's older brother, becomes an animal-rights terrorist while still in his teens. Her father turns to drink. Her mother has a breakdown and stays in bed for a long period. Rosemary, the talkative little girl, goes silent.

The novel covers more than two decades, with Fern never far from Rosemary's thoughts. How she finds a way to become reunited with her sister, after her brother's efforts have failed, lead to Fowler's inspiring and surprising conclusion.

This is a wise, wonderful novel unlike anything you have read before.