The Monkey's Voyage

[A] lively book...his tale of how the world was populated willy-nilly--and of our own fumbling attempts to understand it--makes for a splendid intellectual history. -- Wall Street Journal [An] entertaining book.... De Queiroz writes in a pleasant, relaxed style.... It reads like an eclectic scrapbook, full of interesting bits from hither and yon. -- New York Times Book Review Entertaining and enlightening ... Beyond the actual science, de Queiroz brings insight into the nature of scientific discourse itself. -- Publishers Weekly A story full of intriguing discoveries that de Queiroz, a fluent and spellbinding popular-science writer, agglomerates into the narrative spine of a book brimming with fascination. -- Booklist, starred review A fascinating exploration of the field of biogeography... An excellent storyteller, de Queiroz dramatically weaves the historical development of various scientific tropes--continental drift, plate tectonics, molecular dating, and mass extinctions--together with his own research interests and details of his far-flung travels...[A] provocative book. -- Library Journal Authoritative and eloquent, The Monkey's Voyage provides a revolutionary new look at the history of life on Earth. Drawing from his own and others' research, de Queiroz tells an exuberant tale of organisms thumbing their collective noses over the eons at the perceived scientific wisdom by doing what had been deemed patently impossible, from monkeys crossing roiling oceans to root-bound plants journeying thousands of miles over sea and land to end up on the tippity tops of unclimbable summits. As de Queiroz reveals, these unexpected travelers have time and again changed the face of the landscapes into which they fall, one unbelievable journey after another, forever altering the grand course of the evolution of life. --Carol Kaesuk Yoon, author of Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science