Today I finished The Inheritors, by William Golding (also the author of Lord of the Flies). The story centers on a group of Neanderthals and their interaction with early modern humans. Events are told from the Neanderthals perspective, which gives greater depth to some events (when a thing is smelt, each layer of smell is discussed, which gives historical meaning to otherwise familiar objects) and confuses others (complex scenes are confusing, and details the narrator relates may not clarify, or even confuse, the reader).
Wikipedia has a spoiler-filled summary of the book. I’m not sure if I agree with its interpretation of the story (as I mentioned, many aspects are confused and purposefully ambiguous). The book is very well written. It is framed twice, once by the opening and closes chapters of the book, and again (at the beginning) by the excerpt from H.G. Well’s The Outline of History and (and the end) by the impression of the book as a whole.
