From the bestselling author of The Love Letter, comes a playful and evocative exploration of the nature of friendship"Classy, intelligent fun." --PeopleSix hundred miles off the Ecuadoran mainland, just south of the equator, the Galpagos Islands are home to diverse species of exotic wildlife--and tourists of every stripe and feather. It is here that Jane Barlow Schwartz embarks on a quest as urgent as Charles Darwin's one hundred and fifty years before: to find out why her childhood friendship with her cousin and soul-mate Martha ended; and what unknown event, family feud, or unintended slight caused the happiest part of her life to become extinct. Along the way, amid blue-footed boobies, red-lipped batfish, and various species mating, squabbling, separating, and coming together again, Jane ponders the origin of her own colorful and peculiar heritage, a secret history of natural selection, and the flawed and fascinating evolutionary process that makes us all who we are.Praise for The Evolution of Jane"A tour de force . . . witty. Consistently amusing and provocative . . . a great pleasure to read."--The New York Times"We should rejoice in a rare novel like The Evolution of Jane. A beautifully descriptive travelogue of the Galpagos . . . wrapped around a rollicking family saga tinged with hints of sexual intrigue. Three cheers."--Barbara Kingsolver, The New York Times Book Review"Hilariously rendered. In her smart, funny, and moving book, Schine weaves a tight bond between natural processes and human love, and reveals to us the spiritual metamorphosis that is life itself."--San Diego Union-Tribune