Spillover: Animal Infections And The Next Human Pandemic

Description: A New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a Scientific American Best Book of the Year, and a Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Ebola, SARS, Hendra, AIDS, and countless other deadly viruses all have one thing in common: the bugs that transmit these diseases all originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. In this gripping account, David Quammen takes the reader along on this astonishing quest to learn how, where from, and why these diseases emerge and asks the terrifying question: What might the next big one be?

Review: "That [Quammen] hasn't won a nonfiction National Book Award or Pulitzer Prize is an embarrassment...Timely and terrifying. Mr. Quammen, a gifted science writer, combines physical and intellectual adventure. He also adds a powerful measure of moral witness: ecological destruction is greatly to blame for our current peril." -- Dwight Garner "David Quammen [is] one of that rare breed of science journalists who blend exploration with a talent for synthesis and storytelling." -- Nathan Wolfe "Riveting, terrifying, and inspiring." -- Georges Simenon "This is a frightening and fascinating masterpiece of science reporting that reads like a detective story. David Quammen takes us on a quest to understand AIDS, Ebola, and other diseases that share a frightening commonality: they all jumped from wild animals to humans. By explaining this growing trend, Quammen not only provides a warning about the diseases we will face in the future, he also causes us to reflect on our place as humans in the earth's ecosystem." -- Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs "David Quammen might be my favorite living science writer: amiable, erudite, understated, incredibly funny, profoundly humane. The best of his books, The Song of the Dodo, renders the relatively arcane field of island biogeography as gripping as a thriller. That bodes well for his new book, whose subject really is thriller-worthy: how deadly diseases (AIDS, SARS, Ebola) make the leap from animals to humans, and how, where, and when the next pandemic might emerge." -- Kathryn Schulz "[Spillover is] David Quammen's absorbing, lively and, yes, occasionally gory trek through the animal origins of emerging human diseases." "As page turning as Richard Preston's The Hot Zone...[Quammen is] one of the best science writers." "[Spillover] delivers news from the front lines of public health. It makes clear that animal diseases are inseparable from us because we are inseparable from the natural world." "Starred review. ...a frightening but critically important book for anyone interested in learning about the prospects of the world's next major pandemic." "Starred review. A wonderful, eye-opening account of humans versus disease." "Starred review. An essential work."



Prizes: Winner of Society of Biology Book Awards: General Biology Book 2013.