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Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic Illustrated Edition

by David Quammen (Author)

4.7 4,816 ratings

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A masterpiece of science reporting that tracks the animal origins of emerging human diseases, Spillover is “fascinating and terrifying … a real-life thriller with an outcome that affects us all” (Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction).

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.

From the Publisher

WARNING: California’s Proposition 65

Editorial Reviews

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"David Quammen [is] one of that rare breed of science journalists who blend exploration with a talent for synthesis and storytelling."
― Nathan Wolfe, Nature

"An adventure-filled page-turner…told from the front lines of pandemic prevention."
― Lizzie Wade, Wired

"As page turning as Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone…[Quammen is] one of the best science writers."
― Seattle Times

"David Quammen might be my favorite living science writer: amiable, erudite, understated, incredibly funny, profoundly humane."
― Kathryn Schulz, New York Magazine

"Quammen balances the technical terms with gorily gripping description and scenes from his own fearless journeys…But his real gift is his writing, with its nice balance of reverence and whimsy."
― Chloë Schama, Smithsonian

"Quammen’s more teacher than Jeremiah. So he calms when he can; but he’s blunt when he must be."
― Jeffrey Burke, Bloomberg

"The scariest book you’ll read this year."
― The Daily Beast

"[An] ambitious and encyclopedic voyage…Mr. Quammen does a beautiful job of showing how so much of scientific knowledge is provisional, with great unknowns about infectious diseases."
― Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone

"David Quammen has done it again. Fascinating and terrifying, Spillover is a real-life thriller with an outcome that affects us all."
― Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

"This is a frightening and fascinating masterpiece of science reporting that reads like a detective story. David Quammen takes us on a quest to understand AIDS, Ebola, and other diseases that share a frightening commonality: they all jumped from wild animals to humans. By explaining this growing trend, Quammen not only provides a warning about the diseases we will face in the future, he also causes us to reflect on our place as humans in the earth’s ecosystem."
― Walter Isaacson, author of Leonardo Da Vinci

About the Author

David Quammen is the author of The Song of the Dodo, among other books. He has been honored with the John Burroughs Medal for nature writing, an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an award in the art of the essay from PEN, and (three times) the National Magazine Award. Quammen is also a contributing writer for National Geographic. He lives in Bozeman, Montana.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Illustrated edition (September 9, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 592 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393346617
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393346619
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.6 x 1.1 x 8.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #27,636 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9 in Microbiology (Books)
- #14 in Viral Diseases (Books)
- #20 in Communicable Diseases (Books)

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4.7 4,816 ratings

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David Quammen

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David Quammen is the author of a dozen fiction and nonfiction books, including Blood Line and The Song of the Dodo. Spillover, his most recent book, was shortlisted for several major awards. A three-time National Magazine Award winner, he is a contributing writer for National Geographic and has written also for Harper’s, Outside, Esquire, The Atlantic, Powder, and Rolling Stone. He travels widely on assignment, usually to jungles, mountains, remote islands, and swamps.

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Customers say

Customers find the book provides clear scientific information about zoonotic diseases. They describe it as an engaging and well-written read that is accessible to the lay reader. Readers appreciate the narrative style with anecdotes and personal involvement. The book has a good pace and covers a lot of ground, making it timely.

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Information quality Readability Writing quality Enthralling Narrative style Pace Humor Scariness level

387 customers mention "Information quality"377 positive10 negative

Customers find the book provides clear and engaging information about virology, microbiology, and epidemiology. It walks readers through key concepts with detailed explanations. The author's research is thorough, and the book provides a comprehensive yet readable overview of the topic.

"...Another major positive is the scope. This book has SO MUCH information and yes, you absolutely have to pay attention, but the author does a great..." Read more

"...and throughout the book I was amazed by his ability to explaining difficult scientific concepts in a way that makes the reader understand... even..." Read more

"...He informs and entertains; even while imparting serious information, he includes witty, humorous comments. I enjoyed this book very much...." Read more

"This book was packed with so much information and reading it in 2020 makes it even better...." Read more

329 customers mention "Readability"329 positive0 negative

Customers find the book readable and well-written. They say it's worth reading, with an informative last chapter that brings everything together. Readers praise the author's skill in explaining difficult concepts and bringing the information together. Overall, they consider this book a worthwhile investment of time and thought.

"...you absolutely have to pay attention, but the author does a great job at bringing everything together and explaining difficult to understand topics...." Read more

"This is the best book I have read in a long time...." Read more

"...True - and it is worth every dollar I spent. Likely the next big pandemic will be the result of a spillover virus of some kind...." Read more

"...This book is a great investment of time and thought." Read more

247 customers mention "Writing quality"218 positive29 negative

Customers find the writing accessible and readable. They appreciate the narrative storytelling that provides a good understanding of the recent history of zoonotic infections. The book is written for the layperson who is willing to investigate. Readers describe it as an excellent novel, providing a comprehensive yet readable overview of zoonoses and diseases that cross over.

"...The storytelling is amazing, it really does read like a narrative and I felt swept away at many points that I had to remind myself this was..." Read more

"...David Quammen's writing is accessible and throughout the book I was amazed by his ability to explaining difficult scientific concepts in a way that..." Read more

"...One of the many great qualities of Spillover is the accessibility of Quammen's writing...." Read more

"...with just the right amount if narrative storytelling to be highly readable...." Read more

187 customers mention "Enthralling"179 positive8 negative

Customers find the book engaging and entertaining. They appreciate the accurate knowledge about viruses presented in an adventure-like narrative. The storytelling weaves through many narratives of mystery and intrigue, making for a fascinating buildup to the chapter "It Depends" where the story explodes. Readers praise the author's skill in weaving together stories about unique personalities and detective mysteries with thrilling scenes and searches.

"...research, and all presented cohesively in a narrative that grips you with every chapter. My favorite section of all was Ebola...." Read more

"...exotic locations around the world, that simultaneously, gives the reader intriguing and accurate knowledge about various exotic but dangerous..." Read more

"...He informs and entertains; even while imparting serious information, he includes witty, humorous comments. I enjoyed this book very much...." Read more

"...Author David Quammen has written an important, informative, and entertaining (really!) book...." Read more

93 customers mention "Narrative style"87 positive6 negative

Customers enjoy the engaging narrative style with anecdotes and believable stories about diseases and people. They appreciate the author's personal involvement and capsule biographies. The book provides thorough coverage of past history and current science, making it an interesting non-fictional scientific account of virology. Readers also mention that the author has a journalistic approach to writing.

"...It is a blend of science, history, ecology, anthropology, immunology, research, and all presented cohesively in a narrative that grips you with..." Read more

"...This book explains the ecological and biological circumstances that take play when a zoonotic decease goes from hidden threat to a global pandemic...." Read more

"...clear scientific explanations with just the right amount if narrative storytelling to be highly readable...." Read more

"...But Spillover repeatedly provides gripping stories that still impart a good understanding of what we know about zoonotic (animal-origin) diseases...." Read more

34 customers mention "Pace"31 positive3 negative

Customers find the book engaging and timely. They appreciate the straightforward presentation of technical issues and the coverage of a wide range of topics. The book is described as an informative read that keeps readers up-to-date with current concerns.

"...Quammen instantly grips the reader. It was an instant page turner, with real science in it!..." Read more

"Update on 4/5/20: This book is one of a handful of relatively recent books that will greatly help you understand COVID 19, Coronaviruses, and animal..." Read more

"...This keeps you turning the pages, the pace is never too slow and it never gets too technical, and at the end of each chapter you truly feel you've..." Read more

"...Obviously very timely, and very well written in language that conveys the technical details in ways easy for lay people to understand...." Read more

23 customers mention "Humor"23 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's humor. They find it entertaining and say the writing softens the serious tone.

"...and entertains; even while imparting serious information, he includes witty, humorous comments. I enjoyed this book very much...." Read more

"...The author has a great knack for adding a bit of humor when the book starts to get bogged down with complex ideas...." Read more

"...And he can be very funny too, in the middle of all the viral fearfulness there is room to laugh...." Read more

"...As usual Quammen entertains, fascinates and keeps us turning pages." Read more

50 customers mention "Scariness level"34 positive16 negative

Customers have different views on the book's scariness level. Some find it fascinating and chilling, while others find it disturbing and describing a long imagined story about the origin of HIV. The book is described as detailed and scientifically accurate.

"...It is excruciatingly and painstakingly specific in detail and science...." Read more

"...The stories presented tie together and present a very clear and present danger...." Read more

"...* There is a long, imagined story in the chapters on the origin HIV that is, essentially, imagined entirely with details about a possible river..." Read more

"...It will inform, frighten and hopefully make the world aware of how close this danger of pandemic is becoming...." Read more

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bill greene
A masterpiece! Epic in scope, highly relevant, and excellent writing 10/10
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2020
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Overall: This book is an absolute masterpiece. Epic in scope, brilliant in how it is all connected, very relevant to today, and extremely eye opening and illuminating. Not an easy read but absolutely worth it! 10/10

Summary:
Much of this story is detailing Quammen's adventures and research following various zoonosis around the world.
Fun fact: Historically, some 60 percent of the infections that plague humankind, from influenza to H.I.V. and bubonic plague, all originated in the bodies of other animals.
This book is neatly divided into sections based around a certain zoonosis or a group of similar ones. Each section is a meticulous telling of the origin, history, pertinent findings and research, development, and current state of these various zoonotic diseases.
Take home message: eat more plants and chocolate!
Note: though this book is all about zoonosis it should not cause the reader to panic or be scared about them. “Spillover” hardly touches on such pandemic-worthy animal pathogens as avian flu or multi-drug-resistant bacteria, rather, it fully describes the unfolding convergence between veterinary science and human medicine, and how veterinary-minded medical experts discover and track diseases that spread across species. “Spillover” is less public health warning than ecological affirmation: these crossovers force us to uphold “the old Darwinian truth (the darkest of his truths, well known and persistently forgotten) that humanity is a kind of animal” — with a shared fate on the planet. “People and gorillas, horses and duikers and pigs, monkeys and chimps and bats and viruses,” Quammen writes. “We’re all in this together.”
“When a pathogen leaps from some nonhuman animal into a person, and succeeds there in establishing itself as an infectious presence, sometimes causing illness or death, the result is a zoonosis.”

The Good: I loved this book! Granted it is a subject I am very interested in but I listened to it with my husband who has no medical or animal background, and he immensely enjoyed it as well. The storytelling is amazing, it really does read like a narrative and I felt swept away at many points that I had to remind myself this was nonfiction. Another major positive is the scope. This book has SO MUCH information and yes, you absolutely have to pay attention, but the author does a great job at bringing everything together and explaining difficult to understand topics. It is a blend of science, history, ecology, anthropology, immunology, research, and all presented cohesively in a narrative that grips you with every chapter. My favorite section of all was Ebola. Overall, this book is phenomenal, very relevant to current events, and I learned so much while listening to it. Highly recommend.

The Bad: There were a few chapters in the section on AIDS that the author was speculating and theorizing that I was not a fan of. I preferred the remainder of the book which was all based on facts and science that I found these few chapters distracting and out of place. Some sections are dense in material that you really do need to be paying attention in order to keep up. I found this to be a positive though as I really learned a lot while reading this book.

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Neuron
Fantastic
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2013
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This is the best book I have read in a long time. It is like a mystery thriller played out in various exotic locations around the world, that simultaneously, gives the reader intriguing and accurate knowledge about various exotic but dangerous pathogens that have the potential to forever change life as we know it. In other words, if you would put the Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, a travel diary book by Bill Bryson, and an Agatha Christie thriller in the mixer, you would get something like this. It just doesn't get better than this!

David Quammen's writing is accessible and throughout the book I was amazed by his ability to explaining difficult scientific concepts in a way that makes the reader understand... even crave science. Though I have read many scholarly articles, no single text I can recall have given me such a deep understanding and appreciation for a scientific subject. I have always been fascinated by bacteria and viruses, however this book multiplied my fascination and my appreciation for the scientists that study viruses and other pathogens in humans as well as in other species.

This book is about spillovers (surprise!). A spillover is when a virus or a bacteria which normally live in one species transfer to a different species. Normally this transition spells the end for the pathogen because they evolved to live in their host species and not in the new species, but sometimes the pathogen survive or even thrive in their new host, which is typically bad news for the new host.

Think of pathogens such as Ebola, rabies, HIV, SARS, and the Spanish flu, all of which are spillovers from other species, and you will understand that pathogens that have the potential to spillover a.k.a zoonotic viruses can result in disaster.

Be assured, you will learn much about these intriguing pathogens, however, this book is not just a review of what we know about zoonotic viruses. On the very first page Quammen takes us to a sunny idyllic farm in Australia. Recently a number of horses have died following under mysterious circumstances. Worse still, several humans that came into contact with the horse also died. What caused these deaths and from where did the horses acquire it? Quammen instantly grips the reader. It was an instant page turner, with real science in it! You must know how these horses and humans died and you gladly, eagerly, follow Quammen when he takes you on a journey in the scientific literature as it develops over time, with frequent field visits that Quammen personally joined to understand the subject better.

Quammen cover several different pathogens, including HIV, Ebola, malaria, and SARS, and he travels accordingly. We get to follow scientists (and Quammen) into crowded Asian markets where hundreds of different animal species, each with their own set of nished pathogens, can be bought for that evenings dinner. We get to visit Bangladesh to analyse date-palm-sap to see if bats have pooped deadly virus into this popular drink. We visit the Congolese jungle where Ebola have completely eradicated large populations of gorillas as well as some smaller human populations. We go to caves filled with snakes, bats and guano. Of course we also get to visit high tech laboratories around the world to talk to researchers who try to understand these zoonotic viruses and predict where the next big pandemic will strike - because if or when "the next big one", capable of killing us by the millions, comes, it will almost certainly be a spillover from another species.

The human species is vulnerable. We are around seven billion people. We are an urban species meaning that we tend of cluster in large groups (cities), which provides pathogens with the perfect springboard. We travel extensively, and could thus easily spread a virus around the globe in a short amount of time. We also continually mess with new ecological systems which may or may not have a deadly virus just waiting for a new host...

Put another way. Human population growth is an typical example of an outbreak i.e., explosive population growth. Just like with outbreaks of crickets that sweep across Africa eating everything it encounter, humans are sweeping across the entire planet, interfering with lots of ecological systems along the way. Indeed the most massive outbreak of any species that the world had ever seen is not a cricket or a larva, it is homo sapiens. And when there is an outbreak of a particular species what typically halts it? You guessed it - pathogens.

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Cezara A. Simon
Un must have!
Reviewed in Italy on November 30, 2023
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Il libro che mi ha fatto appassionare all' epidemiologia. Gli eventi qui narrati mi hanno fatto scoprire una ricerca di altri tempi, permettendomi al tempo stesso di immergermi nella vita di persone che hanno contribuito ala conoscenza di molteplici agenti letali per l'uomo ed animali.
Consigliato per chiunque voglia espandere i propri orizzonti.

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Anoop
An absolute eye opener!
Reviewed in India on February 2, 2022
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I am a biology buff. I read anything related to biology right from research papers to Medium blogs. This book has been the most engrossing read so far! The author's command on the subject shows very clearly in his writing. It is a must read to understand the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic by the virtue of all the important past disease outbreaks that the author talks about in the book. Go for it, you will be wiser at the end of the book.

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Amazon Customer
You should read this book.
Reviewed in Canada on July 24, 2020
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Amazingly written book that has been compelling in each section and offers great insights. It goes into great detail on the biology (ecology, evolution, and genetics) of many zoonotic diseases, yet is written in a way that is accessible to readers from all walks of life. Terrifyingly accurate in predictions on future "spillover" events. Great read.

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Leandro Santana de Oliveira
E o ciclo continua…
Reviewed in Brazil on July 13, 2020
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Livro de autoria de David Quammen, escritor reconhecido pelos suas obras sobre ciência, natureza e viagens. Escrito em 2012, mas lido durante a pandemia de Covid-19, é de uma atualidade fenomenal.

Spillover é um termo técnico para doenças que migram de animais para seres humanos. Muito se fala de um aumento de pandemias e do surgimento de novas doenças a partir de preconceitos (étnicos e políticos). Não sou da área de saúde ou ciência, mas lendo o livro fica claro que a destruição de florestas, a falta de alimentos ou do processamento dos alimentos são as causas mais frequentes de novas doenças.

O livro é de fácil leitura e bastante envolvente. O autor visitou in loco boa parte dos locais descritos no livro, portanto, cada capítulo é uma aventura na qual o leitor fica esperando o que vai acontecer e quem será o “culpado” (uma raposa-voadora, um primata superior, um esquilo?). O mais intrigante é que para muitas doenças nem sequer há uma resposta definitiva, como é o caso do Ebola, onde existem suspeitos, mas não condenados.

Destaco especialmente o capítulo referente ao vírus HIV, que tem seu surgimento rastreado ao início do século XX, o que desbanca uma série de preconceitos do século XXI. O caminho percorrido para descobrir a origem desse malfadado vírus é realmente uma obra prima de história e ciência.

Livro altamente recomendado, especialmente no momento que estamos vivendo.

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M&M
Magnífico
Reviewed in Spain on February 6, 2021
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Muy interesante, informativo y ameno. No es un inglés técnico, sino periodístico

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5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece! Epic in scope, highly relevant, and excellent writing 10/10

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Top reviews from other countries

5.0 out of 5 stars Un must have!

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute eye opener!

5.0 out of 5 stars You should read this book.

5.0 out of 5 stars E o ciclo continua…

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnífico

A masterpiece! Epic in scope, highly relevant, and excellent writing 10/10

Fantastic

Un must have!

An absolute eye opener!

You should read this book.

E o ciclo continua…

Magnífico