About the Author

David Quammen is the author of The Song of the Dodo, among other books. He has been honored with the John Burroughs Medal for nature writing, an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an award in the art of the essay from PEN, and (three times) the National Magazine Award. Quammen is also a contributing writer for National Geographic. He lives in Bozeman, Montana.

Reviews

"Starred review. ...a frightening but critically important book for anyone interested in learning about the prospects of the world's next major pandemic." -- Publishers Weekly "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 - New York Magazine "That [Quammen] hasn't won a nonfiction National Book Award or Pulitzer Prize is an embarrassment." -- Dwight Garner - The New York Times "David Quammen [is] one of that rare breed of science journalists who blend exploration with a talent for synthesis and storytelling." -- Nathan Wolfe - Nature "Starred review. A wonderful, eye-opening account of humans versus disease." -- Kirkus Reviews "Starred review. An essential work." -- Booklist "[Spillover is] David Quammen's absorbing, lively and, yes, occasionally gory trek through the animal origins of emerging human diseases." -- Cleveland Plain Dealer "As page turning as Richard Preston's The Hot Zone... [Quammen is] one of the best science writers." -- Seattle Times "[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." -- Philadelphia Tribune