One of the year's most engaging and important works of non-fiction

Provocative, disturbing, and exhilarating book ... a delight for thoughtful readers. Indeed, it is essential. Migration is reshaping the world and, as Saunders demonstrates, the choices we make today will determine whether it brings prosperity or catastrophe tomorrow

An important new book [that] engages while remaining serious. His evocative descriptions transform a complex, serious subject into a page-turning read

Saunders's approach is through anecdotes and vignettes, but he has done his legwork so they cumulate into a persuasive whole ... [a] highly readable book

the anecdotal flourishes of Oliver Sacks and the populist accessibility of Malcolm Gladwell

A superb read... This book stands comparison with Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, and indeed of the two I prefer it

This book is entirely entertaining - it's a real page turner, and there's very little not to like about the combination of a string of QI like fascinating facts with a whole slew of engaging stories... a delight to read, taking a very predictable subject and approaching it in an entertaining, original and informative way... if you want to be entertained and find out lots of history and fascinating facts around the elements themselves, this is the one for you

A science book you didn't have to get beaten up in high school to read

Only once in a rare while does an author come along with the craft and the vision to capture the fun and fascination of chemistry. The Disappearing Spoon is a pleasure and full of insights. If only I had read it before taking chemistry

Lucid, readable ... a story well told

An elegantly composed and strikingly level-headed inquiry into our relationship with the fish we eat and the waters that sustain them

A powerful case for action ... combining on-the-ground and on-the-ocean reporting from the Yukon to Greece, from the waters off New England to the Mekong Delta, along with accounts of some stirring fishing trips, Greenberg makes a powerful argument ... marvellous exploration of that contradiction, a necessary book for anyone interested in what we take from the sea to eat, and how, and why

Oren Harman's outstanding new biography of the American scientist George Price makes the case that Price's theoretical contributions to biology are among the most important of the twentieth century...Price was undoubtedly an opaque figure; Harman has approached his life with sensitivity and intelligence, providing a clearer window into this troubled mind

Moving biography exploring a geneticst's understanding of human selflessness

An energetic tale that presents not only the science but the history and politics which produced it