New Thriller Tackles Animal Rights

NEW YORK, Sept. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Debut fiction author J. E. Fishman has crafted an "appealing" (Publishers Weekly), "fresh" (Science Thrillers), "deft" (Kirkus), "heart-pounding" (Popcorn Reads) novel, Primacy, that thrusts readers into one of the biggest debates of our time: How should humans treat animals?

"While it is difficult to know exactly how many animals will be experimented on in animal research labs this year," notes Fishman, "estimates range as high as 150 million vertebrates worldwide.  As a storyteller, my job isn't to draw absolute conclusions about this activity but rather to sketch out the questions we should be asking ourselves as a society. We seem too inclined simply to avert our eyes. If Primacy forces those closed doors open a crack, forces us to look inside, it will have accomplished something beyond entertainment."

Fishman knows the elements of a good read, having edited books for Doubleday and once owning a literary agency.

Combining page-turning suspense with moral implications, Primacy tells the story of a researcher who feels compelled to liberate a rare, talking bonobo from the testing lab where she works. In the process she must go on the run from her immoral employer, from an animal rights group with its own designs on the ape, and from her own government, the ultimate protector of the status quo.  With nowhere to turn, she leans heavily on her neighbor, a former horse veterinarian, who becomes smitten and joins her on the lam in a chase that extends all the way to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Through life-and-death action, Primacy dramatizes a significant issue of the day and will surely stir a lively debate around the treatment of animals – including primates – in testing labs across the country. In the end, Primacy poses a profound ethical dilemma:  Is it right to cage and torture other sentient creatures simply because we can?  

As Primacy's characters jockey for the moral high ground over how humans and primates should co-exist, readers explore the tough decisions we each must make and the risks and sacrifices that come along with our choices. No longer can we sit on the sidelines and claim to be unaware of the fate of tens of millions of animals living in research laboratories.

Primacy gives voice to the animals on an issue that is sure to challenge many.

Fishman is represented to the book trade by Planned Television Arts (www.plannedtvarts.com).

SOURCE Planned Television Arts