The Devil's Element

“The Devil’s Element is a tale of folly, waste, greed, and excess, which Egan unspools with a light touch and a brisk pace. … Egan has become one of our most skillful chroniclers of unintended consequences.” – Jonathan Mingle, New York Review of Books“Dan Egan is one of the best environmental writers working today. And this book proves that all over again.” – Deborah Blum, author of The Poison Squad“In the tradition of environmental clarion calls like Silent Spring and The Sixth Extinction…The Devil’s Element urges readers to confront another quietly unfolding disaster…Egan, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for his work chronicling the threats facing the Great Lakes, has a knack for telling big, unwieldy stories through absorbing personal narratives.” – Julia Rosen - Undark”[Egan] builds a story of innovation, failure, recovery, and looming catastrophe.… [A] deep humanity resides in his writing.” – Garin Cycholl - Chicago Review of Books“In his crisply written new book…Dan Egan sounds alarms on both the scarcity and overabundance sides of the phosphorus-human equation.” – Jim Higgins - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel“The urgent story of the 13th element to be discovered.” – Anna Clark - ProPublica“A revelatory book that exposes human use of [phosphorus] as a double-edged sword capable of sustaining and destroying life.” – Booklist (starred review)“A cautionary history.… This will ignite readers’ curiosity.” – Publishers Weekly“Disquieting.… A fine account, worthy of fertile discussion, of yet another environmental disaster.” – Kirkus Reviews

Dan Egan is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Death and Life of the Great Lakes. A two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, he lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his wife and children.