In 2020 the novel coronavirus gripped the world in a global pandemic and led to the death of
hundreds of thousands. The source of the previously unknown virus? Bats. This phenomenon-in
which a new pathogen comes to humans from wildlife-is known as spillover and it may not be
long before it happens again. Prior to the emergence of our latest health crisis renowned
science writer David Quammen was traveling the globe to better understand spillover's
devastating potential. For five years he followed scientists to a rooftop in Bangladesh a
forest in the Congo a Chinese rat farm and a suburban woodland in New York and through
high-biosecurity laboratories. He interviewed survivors and gathered stories of the dead. He
found surprises in the latest research alarm among public health officials and deep concern
in the eyes of researchers. Spillover delivers the science the history the mystery and the
human anguish of disease outbreaks as gripping drama. And it asks questions more urgent now
than ever before: From what innocent creature in what remote landscape will the Next Big One
emerge? Are pandemics independent misfortunes or linked? Are they merely happening to us or
are we somehow causing them? What can be done? Quammen traces the origins of Ebola Marburg
SARS avian influenza Lyme disease and other bizarre cases of spillover including the grim
unexpected story of how AIDS began from a single Cameroonian chimpanzee. The result is more
than a clarion work of reportage. It's also the elegantly told tale of a quest through time
and landscape for a new understanding of how our world works-and how we can survive within it.
