The Fossil Artist - Graeme Friedman

Weaving matters of the heart and mind into the compelling story of one family, this novel traverses time and place, from East End of London in the early 1900s to great archaeological sites in Africa. Russ Codron, a well-meaning optician, has dark secrets not even his wife has been able to unearth. However, when he is confronted with the mummified remains of his fossil-hunting father in the pages of the Sunday Times, Russ's chaotic past crashes into the stability of his present. Needing desperately to find out what really happened to his father, Russ begins a quest that will lead him to the very core of the biggest scientific fraud of all time-the forgery of the Piltdown Man fossils-and to the understanding of what it really means to love.