The Monkey Bible: A Modern Allegory; includes The Line, a Companion Music CD by Eric Maring

The Monkey Bible is the story of Emmanuel, a young college bound Christian man who suddenly has reason to suspect that his genetic make-up, and indeed the story of his creation, is not what he had thought it had been. Dismayed and seemingly alienated from his Church, Emmanuel journeys around the world in search of his genetic and spiritual origins, identity, and community.

The science behind the story is accurate, up-to-date, and accessible, and the reader comes to understand the biological creation story as the adventure unfolds. While The Monkey Bible can be seen as the latest chapter in the larger-than-life debate between Darwinists and creationists, the novel is respectful of both sides, and strives to provide a gentle supportive bridge across which people who disagree can communicate. Ultimately, The Monkey Bible is a timely and necessary plea to alter the stories by which we define ourselves as a way to protect the countless creatures on the great tree of life, upon which all human life depends.

The Monkey Bible is a compelling read and the potential audience extends well beyond those interested in biology, anthropology, wildlife conservation, mythology, and religion. Adults will enjoy this book and so will college students, whose fresh questions about their own origins will resonate with this novel.

Using The Monkey Bible as inspiration, songwriter Eric Maring has written a companion music CD which uses the varied notion of lines to echo the novel's themes. The Line-at turns serious, light, joyous, exuberant, and brooding-praises our ability and need to explore our world and to ask questions, especially regarding our relationship to our planet, our religions, and ourselves.

Long ago, Mark Laxer's quest to understand the bigger world landed him in the inner circle of a brilliant, charismatic guru gone mad. After writing Take Me For A Ride and weathering a $30 million lawsuit, Laxer continued the quest by writing The Monkey Bible, which asks science, religion, and mythology what it means to be human. Laxer runs a software corporation, a storytelling gathering, and a wildlife conservation organization. In 2004, he invented virtual ecotourism.