(Winner of Canada's 2012 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction) In the Canadian wilderness, Gloria Grow created a rehabilitation center like no other, providing shelter and care for chimpanzees rescued from zoos and medical testing laboratories. At Fauna Sanctuary, primates who have endured decades of cruelty and deprivation are finally free to eat, sleep, play, and roam in peace—all while fighting very real psychological damage. Writer and primatologist Andrew Westoll lived and worked at Fauna for one remarkable summer, and here offers poignant testimony to the capacity of these animals to heal, and to learn to be chimps again. It is a bighearted, irresistible story about the species more closely related to us than any other.

"An unflinching, visceral look at the emotional and physical damage—actual, real damage done to specific, individual apes—in some of America's most notorious biomedical research labs. It is also the story of humans who were driven to provide them with refuge, retirement ... and, ultimately, their inherent right to dignity."—Sara Gruen

"This book will make you think deeply about our relationship with great apes. It amazed me to discover the behaviors and feelings of the chimpanzees."—Temple Grandin

"A true story of endurance and resilience, compassion, dedication and love. I knew the prison-like conditions of the medical research facility from which Gloria rescued these chimpanzees; when I visited them at their new sanctuary I was moved to tears. Finally they had reached a secure haven where, gradually, they could recover from their years of torment. Andrew Westoll is a born story teller: The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary, written with empathy and skill, tenderness and humor, involves us in a world few understand. And leaves us marveling at the ways in which chimpanzees are so like us, and why they deserve our help and are entitled to our respect."—Jane Goodall