Rowan Hooper

A wondrous, eye-opening exploration of the way symbiotic relationships connect all living things.

"Absolutely enthralling. I was hooked from the first sentence."
—Bill Bryson, author of A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body

Everything on Earth hinges on relationships: animals and bacteria, the soil and its microbes, plants and molecules floating in the air. Often, these partnerships are subtle—undetectable by the eye—but life as we know it wouldn’t exist without them.

In Togetherness, journalist and evolutionary biologist Rowan Hooper leads us into fascinating, otherworldly spaces—the earth’s rich underbrush, murky ocean depths, the human body’s complex architecture—to uncover the poetic truth that we are all intimately connected. From moths that rely on sloths for reproduction to orchids’ partnerships with fungi to our own relationships with the biosphere, Hooper frames lessons from great thinkers across time—scientists, philosophers, and artists—and emphasizes, with wit and joy, William Blake’s claim that “Every thing that lives / Lives not alone.” Through page-turning examples, Hooper uses symbiosis to clarify ideas about major scientific topics, including evolution, agriculture, climate change, sustainability, and humanity at large. Now more than ever, symbiosis can help us solve some of the biggest issues of our day.

Dazzling, immensely clever, and suffused with wonder, Togetherness bridges the realms of humanity and nature, and proves symbiosis is a key to understanding ourselves and the world beyond.