Description

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE WINNER OF THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE

Your body is teeming with tens of trillions of microbes. It’s an entire world, a colony full of life.

In other words, you contain multitudes.

They sculpt our organs, protect us from diseases, guide our behaviour, and bombard us with their genes. They also hold the key to understanding all life on earth.

In I Contain Multitudes, Ed Yong opens our eyes and invites us to marvel at ourselves and other animals in a new light, less as individuals and more as thriving ecosystems.

You’ll never think about your mind, body or preferences in the same way again.

‘Super-interesting… He just keeps imparting one surprising, fascinating insight after the next. I Contain Multitudes is science journalism at its best’ Bill Gates
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE 2017
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2017

Publisher Review

Super-interesting... He just keeps imparting one surprising, fascinating insight after the next. I Contain Multitudes is science journalism at its best -- Bill Gates [A] marvellous, thrilling and richly annotated book... I call it marvellous: everything about the microbial world is to be marvelled at. And it is a page-turner in a very old-fashioned sense. All life is here, and death too, and sex and violence, including deviations of which you had never dreamed ... We have an inner life, in every sense, and are the richer for it: richer still for this witty and compelling book. -- Tim Radford * Guardian * Beyond fascinating. An amazing book. It'll change the way you think about the world. It'll change who you think you are. -- Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk Momentous ... an essential read -- Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times * I Contain Multitudes makes the importance of popularising science...sparklingly clear... From his vibrant introduction to his witty endnotes, Yong's expertise and narration hold no less wonder than a sacred text. -- Kate Womersley * Spectator *