Description
Book SynopsisIn The Secret Life of Bones, Brian Switek frames the history of our species through the importance of bone from instruments and jewellery, to objects of worship and conquest from the origins of religion through the genesis of science up to today.
Trade Review'Smart, lively, and hugely informative... the ideal guide to the bones around us and in us' Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction
‘A witty, conversational romp through the world of bones, by one of our finest natural history writers. Dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, human origins, and culture are all woven together into a breezy, beautifully told story that will make you appreciate the wonder of the skeleton hidden inside of us all’ Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh palaeontologist and Sunday Times-bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
‘A thoughtful, engaging meditation on the origins of the human skeleton, how it functions (or malfunctions) and how we come to terms with our essential but unsettling osseous framework’ Nature
‘Compellingly evokes the sheer wonder and complexity of the supporting framework inside you - and the murky human responses it arouses’ Science
‘I sit here now crossing my extraordinary kneecaps... I can see them better thanks to Switek’ Rose George, New York Times Book Review
'A lyrical love letter to the 206 or so bones in the human skeleton and thecolourful figures who have studied them over the centuries’ Jennifer Ouellette, author of The Calculus Diaries
'Switek writes with remarkable grace about the natural world… Every chapterhas some surprise, told in elegant tales, that you will repeat to your friends' Carl Zimmer, author of She Has Her Mother's Laugh
