Ham’s Heaven

Before Armstrong took his first step, another pioneer blazed toward the stars: Ham, a young chimpanzee seized from the forests of Cameroon and trained by his devoted handler, Bradley. As the U.S. space program races toward the future, their extraordinary bond is tested in perilous experiments, culminating in Ham’s harrowing journey beyond Earth’s atmosphere. He becomes a living symbol of human ambition, and its staggering cost. Finally, Bradley must acknowledge the limits of compassion and takes drastic action. Inspired by real events, Ham’s Heaven is a deeply moving exploration of friendship, sacrifice, and the uneasy alliance between man and animal. Named one of the best books of 2024 by Ha’aretz and best debut fiction by the radio show Under Cover, Ham’s Heaven is a testament to the bonds that define us—and the quest for progress that so often divides us.

Ori Gersht is an internationally acclaimed artist known for his innovative photography and video works. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, London, he has served as Professor of Photography at the University for the Creative Arts in Rochester, England. His work is in major collections, including the New York Guggenheim; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Tate, London.

Joanna Chen is a British-born writer and translator of contemporary Hebrew literature. Her translations include Yonatan Berg’s Frayed Light (finalist for the National Jewish Book Awards), Meir Shalev’s My Wild Garden and Tehila Hakimi’s Hunting in America (winner of Paper Brigade New Fiction Award).

“An extraordinarily intense debut novel. Its subject matter—the true story of the ‘training’ forced on chimpanzees to become astronauts—is all the more deeply affecting for the matter-of-fact tone of its telling. This is fiction that vividly documents a pivotal moment in the history of primates—the history of humans as well as of chimpanzees. It deserves a wide audience.”—Don LePan, author of Animals and Lucy and Bonbon