Togetherness by Rowan Hooper - ISBN: 9781911717157
Paperback
Life’s hidden wonders: cooperation, not competition, shapes our future.

Togetherness

Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of Life’s Greatest Collaborations

$32.17

  • Paperback

    416 pages

  • Release Date

    2 June 2026

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Summary

An awe-inspiring exploration of how symbiosis can change the way we understand our world, ourselves and our future

From evolution to capitalism, ‘survival of the fittest’ has shaped our view of the world. But we got it wrong - and our mistake has brought us to the brink.

For the history of life on Earth is much more than a story of competition. The natural world has been forged and sustained by small miracles of co-operation between animals and plants, insects and fungi, fish …

Book Details

ISBN-13:9781911717157
ISBN-10:1911717154
Author:Rowan Hooper
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Imprint:Fern Press
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:416
Release Date:2 June 2026
Weight:504g
Dimensions:234mm x 154mm x 33mm
What They're Saying

Critics Review

Absolutely enthralling. I was hooked from the first sentence – Bill BrysonPure magic – Caitlin MoranTremendous – a panorama, or cyclorama, or cosmorama of life – Philip PullmanThis book reshapes our ideas about science, nature and ourselves. The revelations in this book made me rethink the world’ – Chris PackhamHooper challenges the idea that life is driven chiefly by competition, showing instead how deeply nature depends on co-operation. From figs and wasps to coral and gut microbes, this is an eye-opening account of symbiosis and survival * i Paper *A clarion call for cooperation at a time when competition, chaos and cruelty seem to rule the day … This is a joyful book, of hope and wonder, which celebrates community as the true key to success in nature – Steve BrusatteTogetherness is the most important book I’ve read for years. Richly layered, thrilling, intellectually wide-ranging and so fascinating with evocative imagery and warm prose which brings the science and the world to vivid life and offers a crucial and urgent intervention on our mistaken and inadequate understanding of life and its entangled, enmeshed, webby, netty, symbiotic togetherness … Utterly stunning and awe-inspiring. Everyone needs to read this book, now! – Lucy JonesI think this may be one of those rare books that’s a classic upon its publication. It calmly and comprehensively helps you see the world in a very new and hopeful way, and I think the insights apply to our social and political life. We were, all of us, built for contact – Bill McKibbenThis book has both scientific chops and beautiful storytelling – Rebecca SolnitAn awe-inspiring journey … An exposé of our unbreakable connections with all life on Earth – Alex Antonelli

About The Author

Rowan Hooper

Rowan Hooper is podcast editor at New Scientist and host of the New Scientist Weekly podcast. He has been at New Scientist for over 15 years, covering all aspects of science. He has a PhD in evolutionary biology and worked in a conservation biology lab in Japan for five years, before joining the Japan Times in Tokyo and later taking up a fellowship in a physics lab at Trinity College Dublin. His work has also appeared in the Economist, the Guardian, Wired, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

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