Breathless

Author: David Quammen

Format: Paperback

The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus

**A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 and FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2023**
*Shortlisted for the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize 2023*

From the author of Spillover, the book that predicted the pandemic, Breathless is the story of Covid-19 and its fierce journey through the human population, as seen by the scientists tasked with fighting it.

Bestelling author David Quammen draws on countless interviews with experts, including leading virologists, to take us inside the global race to understand SARS-CoV-2, it's ever-changing nature and capacity to kill. In doing so, he explains how new viruses emerge when we disrupt ecosystems and suggests why the coronavirus may be here to stay.

By peering over the shoulders of the brilliant scientists leading the chase, Breathless uncovers the warnings from infectious diseases experts that went unheeded; and which clues are the most compelling in the hunt for the virus' origin.

'A viral howdunnit that is pacy and unafraid to educate readers' — Observer

'A luminous, passionate account of the defining crisis of our time' — New York Times

'A classic...a masterpiece' — Stanley Prusiner, Nobel Prize Winner

'As close to authoritative history as we have... It reads like a real-time thriller' — Chicago Tribune

About the Author

David Quammen's sixteen previous books include The Tangled Tree, The Song of the Dodo, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, and Spillover, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and recipient of the Premio Letterario Merck. He has written for the New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, the Atlantic, National Geographic and Outside, among other publications, and is a three-time winner of the National Magazine Award.

Quammen shares a home in Bozeman, Montana, with his wife, Betsy Gaines Quammen, author of American Zion, and with two Russian wolfhounds, a cross-eyed cat, and a rescue python. Visit him at DavidQuammen.com

For custom orders and quotes: shop@schoolspace.co.za

© 2026 Schoolspace. This product description is the exclusive intellectual property of the publisher, protected under copyright law. Unauthorized use, adaption, or copying is strictly prohibited.