Important, necessary, urgent and phenomenally interesting ? Helen Macdonald, New York TimesSmart ? Bill GatesA meticulously researched and deftly crafted work of journalism that explores some of the biggest challenges of our age ? GuardianRiveting ? Washington PostA superb and honest reflection of our extraordinary time ? Nature

Elizabeth Kolbert is the author of the international bestseller The Sixth Extinction, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize, and Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. She has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 1999, and has been awarded the Blake-Dodd Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with her husband and children.