Description
Book SynopsisAlan Weisman is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books, including the global bestseller
The World Without Us, which has been translated into 34 international languages and was nominated for numerous awards. His writing has appeared in
Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Vanity Fair, The Los Angeles Times Magazine and many other places. Alan has worked on all seven continent and reported from 58 countries, and lives in western Massachusetts.
Trade ReviewCompelling ... jammed packed with fascinating "what ifs" * Guardian *
A powerful vision of a possible future for the earth * Sunday Times *
A fascinating nonfiction eco-thriller * The New York Times Book Review *
Drawing from hundreds of interviews with engineers, scientists and archaeologists, it unfolds like a thriller
-- Cal Flyn * Guardian Best Books about the Post-Human Earth *
One of the grandest thought experiments of our time, a tremendous feat of imaginative reporting! * Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and Deep Economy *
Flesh-creepingly good fun . . . Food for thought * Independent *
A wonderful idea... a hugely enjoyable and thought-provoking book... Terrific * Evening Standard *
The imaginative power of The World Without Us is compulsive and nearly hypnotic--make sure you have time to be kidnapped into Alan Weisman's alternative world before you sit down with the book, because you won't soon return. This is a text that has a chance to change people, and so make a real difference for the planet * Charles Wohlforth, author of L.A. Times Book Prize-winning The Whale and the Supercomputer *
An exacting account of the processes by which things fall apart. The scope is breathtaking...the clarity and lyricism of the writing itself left me with repeated gasps of recognition about the human condition. I believe it will be a classic * Dennis Covington, author of National Book Award finalist Salvation on Sand Mountain *
The book boasts an amazingly imaginative conceit that manages to tap into underlying fears and subtly inspire us to consider our interaction with the planet * The Washington Post *
Alan Weisman offers us a sketch of where we stand as a species that is both illuminating and terrifying. His tone is conversational and his affection for both Earth and humanity transparent * Barry Lopez, author of Arctic Dreams *
Fascinating, mordant, deeply intelligent, and beautifully written, The World Without Us depicts the spectacle of humanity's impact on the planet Earth in tragically poignant terms that go far beyond the dry dictates of science. This is a very important book for a species playing games with its own destiny * James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency *
Marvellous...the first environmentalist not to preach, but to present us with the sober, humbling facts ... so intricate is his web of evidence, so seductive his argument, that he doesn't need to preach ... The effect of The World Without Us is a little like reading Pliny the Elder's history of the world: a sense of nature as the caster of spells and marvels, but with ourselves not as wide-eyed observers, nor as villains somehow separate from nature, but simply as resourceful and blundering * Daily Telegraph *
This is not a book about the end of the world but about an imagined beginning ...The results of this huge thought-experiment are both fascinating and surprising. Fascinating for what they tell us about the impermanence of the works of man, and surprising for the simple reason that it soon becomes clear that our world would carry on regardless, indifferent to our demise * Daily Mail *
Weisman's gripping fantasy will make most readers hope that at least some of us can stick around long enough to see how it all turns out * New York Times *
Engrossing * New York Magazine *
An idea that is so lateral and clever, so powerfully evocative and masterfully executed that the only appropriate response is fervent envy * New Statesman *
A wonderful idea ... a hugely enjoyable and thought-provoking book * Scotsman *
Fascinating, absorbing * Good Book Guide *
A quick, absorbing read - a summer beach book with brains * Bloomberg *
If you can stomach only one end-of-the world-as-we-know it story this summer, none is more audacious or interesting than Alan Weisman's The World Without Us * The Boston Globe *
