Based on the true story of an infamous 1960s experiment, The Dolphin House is a meditation on what makes us truly human.

1965: outside a small house on the coast of St. Thomas, four dolphins are circling in a pool. This is where Cora, newly arrived on the island, finds them by accident, as though they've been waiting for her. She won't discover the motives of the scientists working in the house until later, but by then her apparent connection with the animals--aided by her own deafness--has given her every reason to stay.

The house is a research facility led by the obsessive Dr. Blum, a man aiming to teach the dolphins' human language. To stave off some of Blum's more insidious experimentations, Cora suggests they build a flooded apartment where she can live and speak with the youngest dolphin around the clock.

The radical research forges ahead, but Blum has other ideas and Cora's instincts clash with the male-dominated world of science in the sixties. As a terrible scandal threatens to engulf the experiment, Cora's determination to save the dolphins becomes a battle to save herself.

The Philip K. Dick Award-winning sci-fi novel: A riveting page-turner about the behavior of primates--human and otherwise--in a very near and dire future (The Washington Post).

Winner of the 2019 Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award for Speculative Fiction

One of The Washington Post's 50 Notable Works of fiction in 2018

In a world where coastal cities flood, dust storms plague the Midwest, and implants connect humans directly to the Web, Dr. Francine Burk has broken new ground in the study of primate sexuality. While in recovery from a long-needed surgery--paid for with a portion of her McArthur genius award money--Frankie is offered placement at a prestigious research institute where she can verify her subversive scientific discovery: her Theory of Bastards.
Leaving Manhattan for a research campus outside Kansas City, Frankie finds that the bonobos she's studying are complex, with distinct personalities. She comes to know them with the help of her research partner, a man with a complicated past and perhaps a place in her future. But when the entire campus is caught in a sudden emergency, the lines between subject and scientist--and between colleague and companion--begin to blur.
Audrey Schulman Award-winning novel explores the nuances of communication, the implications of unquestioned technological advancement, and the enduring power of love in a way that is essential and urgent in today's world.

Based on the true story of the 1965 dolphin house experiment, this spellbinding novel captures the tenor of the social experiments of the 1960s in award-winning author Audrey Schulman's tightly paced and evocative style.

It is 1965, and Cora, a young, hearing impaired woman, buys a one-way ticket to the island of St. Thomas, where she discovers four dolphins held in captivity as part of an experiment led by the obsessive Dr. Blum. Drawn by a strong connection to the dolphins, Cora falls in with the scientists and discovers her need to protect the animals.

Recognizing Cora's knack for communication, Blum uses her for what will turn into one of the most fascinating experiments in modern science: an attempt to teach the dolphins human language by creating a home in which she and a dolphin can live together.

As the experiment progresses, Cora forges a remarkable bond with the creatures, until her hard-won knowledge clashes with the male-dominated world of science. As a terrible scandal threatens to engulf the experiment, Cora's fight to save the dolphins becomes a battle to save herself.

Two Americans have life-altering experiences in Africa a century apart in this environmentalist adventure novel by the author of Theory of Bastards (Kirkus Reviews).

In 1899, Jeremy, a young engineer, leaves a small town in Maine to oversee the construction of a railroad across British East Africa. In charge of hundreds of Indian laborers, he becomes the reluctant hunter of two lions that are killing his men in nightly attacks. Plagued by fear and alienated by a secret he can tell no one, Jeremy takes increasing solace in the company of his African scout.
In 2000, Max, an American ethnobotanist, travels to Rwanda where she searches for an obscure vine that could become a lifesaving pharmaceutical. Stationed in the mountains, she shadows a family of gorillas--the last of their group to survive the local poachers. But their precarious freedom is threatened as a violent rebel group from the nearby Congo draws close.
Told in alternating perspectives that interweave the two characters and their fates, Audrey Schulman's novel deftly confronts the struggle between progress and preservation, idiosyncrasy and acceptance.

WINNER of the Philip K. Dick Award for BEST Science Fiction

In a near and mildly dystopic future, Francine has finally been freed from years of undiagnosed pain--a recent surgery has provided relief. Her subversive Theory of Bastards, which has unseated public figures and past presidents, has proven fruitful for other scientists and rewarded her with a generous grant and a prestigious placement at The Foundation. Now she is spearheading further research on a group of remarkable animals, bonobos. Her steady, significant progress is interrupted when windstorms sweep up out of the abandoned places and her colleagues retreat to safety. Francine and the man she has come to love stay behind to weather the storm, protect their simian research subjects, and continue the work, as a new and better future begins to emerge from the dust.

Audrey Schulman has once again written a spellbinding, original novel that never loses sight of its humanity.