Spillover: Animal Infections And The Next Human Pandemic

Description

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. What is going on? 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.

Promotion info

A gripping and timely book about the transmission of highly dangerous diseases from animal to human populations.

Reviews

"A frightening and fascinating masterpiece of science reporting that reads like a detective story" -- Walter Isaacson "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

Author description

David Quammen is a recipient of the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the author of five acclaimed natural history titles. His most recent book, The Song of the Dodo, won the BP Natural World Book Prize in 1996. He lives in Montana.