"Lost in awe at the beauty around me, I must have slipped into a state of heightened awareness....Self was utterly absent: I and the chimpanzees, the earth and trees and air, seemed to merge, to become one with the spirit power of life itself." [p.173] Her revolutionary studies of Tanzania's chimpanzees forever altered our definition of "humanity." Now, intriguing as always, Jane Goodall explores her deepest convictions in a heartfelt memoir that takes her from the London Blitz to Louis Leakey's famous excavations in Africa and then into the forest of Gombe.

From the unforgettable moment when a wild chimpanzee gently grasps her hand to the terror of a hostage-taking and the sorrow of her husband's death, her unshakable spiritual beliefs break through to give her life meaning and direction...