Description

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024
FOYLE’S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023
LONGLISTED FOR BLACKWELL’S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023
ONE OF THE GUARDIAN’S BEST IDEAS BOOKS OF 2023
ONE OF THE TELEGRAPH’S FIFTY BEST BOOKS OF 2023
ONE OF PROSPECT’S BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2023
ONE OF DUA LIPA’S SERVICE95 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ‘5 INSPIRING READS TO KICK START THE NEW YEAR’

‘Funny and very important’ Chris van Tulleken, bestseling author of Ultra-Processed People

‘Educates and emboldens’ Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry

‘Enchantingly written, the pages sparkle with delightful and novel facts’ Walter Gilbert, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1980

‘Should revolutionise our understanding of human life’ George Monbiot, bestselling author of Regenesis

‘A vast and revolutionary history of female evolution’ Sunday Times

How did wet nurses drive civilization? Are women always the weaker sex? Is sexism useful for evolution? And are our bodies at war with our babies?

In Eve, Cat Bohannon answers questions scientists should have been addressing for decades. With boundless curiosity and sharp wit, she covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex. Eve is not only a sweeping revision of human history, it’s an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long. Bohannon’s findings, including everything from the way C-sections in the industrialized world are rearranging women’s pelvic shape to the surprising similarities between pus and breast milk, will completely change what you think you know about evolution and why Homo sapiens have become such a successful and dominant species, from tool use to city building to the development of language.

Publisher Review

A smart, funny, scientific deep-dive into the power of a woman’s body, Eve surprises, educates, and emboldens. Who runs the world? Girls! — Bonnie Garmus, author of LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY Such a rare book: scholarly, funny, accessible and very important. A truly original history of humans that explains so much of who we are today — Chris van Tulleken, author of ULTRA-PROCESSED PEOPLE Utterly fascinating. This book should revolutionise our understanding of human life. It is set to become a classic — George Monbiot, author of REGENESIS Eve was immeasurably useful to me in my life-long quest to understand my own body. I highly recommend it to anyone who is on the same journey. — Hope Jahren, author of LAB GIRL and STORY OF MORE Why do women live longer than men? Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer’s? And what is it with this damn menopause? Ten years in the writing, this triumph of rigor and accessibility by a Columbia University researcher is a myth-busting look at how the female body has driven evolution over the past 200 million years, continuing to shape all our lives today. In short it’s a brilliant book about “breasts, and blood, and fat, and vaginas, and wombs…how they came to be and how we live with them now, no matter how weird or hilarious the truth is.” — Caroline Sanderson * The Bookseller, Editor’s Choice *