I’m delighted to announce that The Elephant in the Room: How to Stop Making Ourselves and Other Animals Sick will be published on Thursday 10th April with Icon Books in the UK and May 15th in the US with University of Chicago Press.
Here’s the synopsis:
Humans, animals and disease. They’re all inter-related, so why do we keep ignoring the elephant in the room?
It’s well known that Covid-19 may have come from a bat, but diseases are often transmitted in the other direction too. Humans have passed diseases to animals countless times through history, and it’s the cross-currents of this relationship between humans, animals and disease that are explored by Liz Kalaugher in The Elephant in the Room.
Taking the reader on a globe-trotting journey through time, Kalaugher presents a series of fascinating case histories of human-related wildlife diseases. Among the stories featured here are the early humans who may have carried pathogens responsible for the extinction of Neanderthals, the native birds of Hawaii that have been devasted by human-introduced disease, and the Tasmanian tiger that has been lost to the sands of time.
Examining these tales and drawing on first-hand accounts from experts around the world, The Elephant in the Room is both a tragic history and an inspirational call to arms. It doesn’t have to be this way. By learning from the past, it’s possible to create a better, healthier environment for ourselves, our wildlife and our planet.
Publisher: Icon Books
ISBN: 9781837731381
Number of pages: 352
Dimensions: 234 x 153 mm
Please do pre-order if you can, via this link to support an independent bookshop in the UK or from the University of Chicago Press directly if you’re in the US.
One of the biggest ingredients for the success of any book is word-of-mouth, and I’m hoping that all of you will help me spread the word—tweet about it, write a Facebook post, write an online review (an honest one, of course), consider adopting it for a course, or just talk to people about it.
Thank you very much!
Liz Kalaugher 