Spillover
the powerful, prescient book that predicted the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:1st Aug '13
£12.99
Available for immediate dispatch.
A gripping and timely book about the transmission of highly dangerous diseases from animal to human populations.
First, a horse in Brisbane falls ill: fever, swelling, bloody froth. Then thirteen others drop dead. The foreman at the stables becomes ill and the trainer dies. This title tracks these infections to their source and asks what we can do to prevent some new pandemic spreading across the face of the earth.
Read this gripping, timely book about the transmission of deadly viruses from animal to human populations, and how we can fight the current Covid-19 pandemic.
WITH A NEW AFTERWORD ON CORONAVIRUS
As globalization spreads and as we destroy the ancient ecosystems, we encounter strange and dangerous infections that originate in animals but that can be transmitted to humans. Diseases that were contained are being set free and the results are potentially catastrophic.
In a journey that takes him from southern China to the Congo, from Bangladesh to Australia, David Quammen tracks these infections to their source, and asks what we can do to prevent some new pandemic spreading across the face of the earth.
As we continue to feel the global impact of Covid-19, discover the book that predicted this viral disaster and the science that could stop the next one in its tracks.
'A tremendous book...this gives you all you need to know and all you should know' Sunday Times
'Chilling... [A] brilliant, devastating book' Daily Mail
'A frightening and fascinating masterpiece of science reporting that reads like a detective story' Walter Isaacson
A frightening and fascinating masterpiece of science reporting that reads like a detective story -- Walter Isaacson
It may have been eight years since David Quammen's Spillover was first published, but its prescience is spookily topical this plague year -- Richard Dawkins * New Statesman *
Travelling deep into the rainforest with the scientists hoping to identify the next pandemic pathogen, Quammen's book is plotted like a detective thriller -- Gaia Vince * Guardian *
Quammen’s book is compelling and shows that there are many candidates out there vying to be the next pandemic -- Euan Lawson * British Journal of General Practice *
Quammen has a wide range of knowledge, an agile pen, and a generous heart -- James Gorman * New York Times Book Review *
A tremendous book...this gives you all you need to know and all you should know. Quammen’s research and the analysis make sensationalism unnecessary -- Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times *
Mr Quammen is not just among our best science writers but among our best writers, period...that he hasn’t won a non-fiction National Book Award or Pulitzer Prize is an embarrassment... Quammen is a patient explainer and a winning observer, he has a novelistic flair for describing his fellow humans... Quammen, combining physical and intellectual adventure, wraps his canny explorations into powerful moral witness -- Dwight Garner * New York Times *
One of that rare breed of science journalists who blend exploration with a talent for synthesis and storytelling... This is a timely, serious and impressive work that marks the maturation of a field of microbiology -- Nathan Wolfe * Nature *
Terrific…the stories of the victims and the scientists are told in astonishing detail -- Caroline Ash * Guardian *
He [Quammen] ranges with ease over decades and continents, drawing upon years of interviews and field trips with scientists...[he] is a lively writer and a good detective, tracing diseases from their first appearance back to their origins—in some cases, still unsettled... Quammen does not shy away from the lurid question of the “next big one” that will be on readers’ minds from the start * The Economist *
- Winner of Society of Biology Book of the Year 2013 (UK)
- Short-listed for National Book Critics Circle Non-Fiction Award 2013 (United States)
ISBN: 9780099522850
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 35mm
Weight: 405g
592 pages