'The Language Puzzle is a notable piece of scholarship that deserves to take a prominent place in the literature of the origins and evolution of language' - The Critic 'A fascinating history of ideas and a masterful synthesis of the latest insights from linguistics, archaeology, genetics, neuroscience and AI - providing us with a compelling theory of the evolution of language. The Language Puzzle is a tour de force' - Alice Roberts, Professor of Public Engagement in Science at University of Birmingham and author 'An epic achievement that, more than any other book out there, rises to the challenge of elucidating the immense complexity that underpinned the emergence and evolution of human language . keeps the reader deliciously hanging on' - Dean Falk, Hale G. Smith Professor of Anthropology at Florida State University and author 'A remarkably comprehensive biography of the single most important thing we all share - language - written with Mithen's wonderful ability to combine deep insights with a story engagingly told' - Robin Dunbar, anthropologist and author 'An authoritative, dense yet accessible synthesis, The Language Puzzle is a superbly up-to-date guide to the complex and variegated evolution of language. Encompassing a huge and multidisciplinary scope of knowledge and covering some 5 million years, this fascinating book shows that asking how and why we came to speak also means exploring what it is to be human' - Rebecca Wragg Sykes, archaeologist and author.