The Genetic Book of the Dead

“Ingenious stories in the service of deep natural history.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Astute. . . . The author’s talent for rendering complex concepts in lucid prose remains intact.”—Publishers Weekly

“Overflowing with the beauty of nature, the beauty of language, and the beauty of ideas.”—Steven Pinker, author of Rationality and Enlightenment Now

“Dazzling in originality and scope, with beautiful illustrations, this is a wonderful celebration of the power of natural selection. Richard Dawkins reveals with brilliant clarity the imprint on organisms of their evolutionary past.”—Nick Davies, author of Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature

“Once again, Richard Dawkins asks us to look at the living world in a totally novel way: Every organism carries, in its genes, a record of the past environments in which its ancestors survived. This brilliant new way of interpreting nature opens our eyes to both the past and the future.”—John R. Krebs, author of Food: A Very Short Introduction and coauthor of An Introduction to Behavioral Ecology

“Written with typical verve and panache, Richard Dawkins’s The Genetic Book of the Dead makes a brilliant contribution to the public understanding of evolution using our most up-to-date understanding of genetics. It will enthrall, surprise, and challenge you. Read it!”—Jerry A. Coyne, author of Why Evolution Is True and Faith Versus Fact

“Richard Dawkins is the most accomplished science communicator of the past half century, and this book is a masterpiece of popular science writing.”—Tim Coulson, author of The Science of Why We Exist
 
“This book is a summation of the ideas of the author who brought us ‘memes’ and ‘selfish genes.’ Richard Dawkins’s lucid prose will change the way you think about your evolutionary past.”—David Haig, author of From Darwin to Derrida: Selfish Genes, Social Selves, and the Meanings of Life
 
“The ingenuity of evolution is infinite, a fact that fascinates Richard Dawkins as much as it fascinated Charles Darwin. Inside each organism he finds rich palimpsests chronicling the history of life itself.”—Matt Ridley, author of The Evolution of Everything and How Innovation Works
 
“The deployment of the conceit of genes looking backward in time is clever and well done. A piece of vivid popular science.”—Stephen Stearns, coauthor of Evolution: An Introduction