Sign Changes is a novel about ideas and the ways they have changed us. It is about the way you came to understand the very words you are reading now. About the origins of symbol use. Kpol and his tribe struggle to survive an ice age 100,000 years ago and adapt to new ways. In 16th century England, a young boy leaves the countryside to learn to read and print books. In the near-present computer age, a man and woman prepare for the bombs they fear will fall. And in the distant future, a new form of life comes into existence. What connects them all?