Insectopolis by Peter Kuper

This visually immersive work of graphic non-fiction dives into a world where ants, cicadas, bees and butterflies visit a library exhibition that displays their stories and humanity's connection to them throughout the ages. Kuper's thrilling visual feast layers history and science, colour and design, to tell the remarkable tales of dung beetles navigating by the stars, hawk-size prehistoric dragonflies hunting prey and mosquitoes changing the course of human history.

Kuper also illuminates pioneering naturalists, from well-known figures like E. O. Wilson and Rachel Carson to unheralded luminaries like Charles Henry Turner, the Black American scholar who documented arthropod intelligence and Maria Sybilla Merian, the seventeenth-century German regarded as the mother of entomology.

Galvanised by the sixth extinction and the ongoing insect crisis, Kuper takes readers on an unforgettable journey.

About the Author
Peter Kuper is the author of numerous books, including the Eisner Award-winning Ruins. His editorial cartoons regularly appear in The New Yorker, The Nation, and Charlie Hebdo. He lives in New York.

Reviews
"Peter Kuper's stunning Insectopolis takes readers on journey, traveling through time and space in the company of Earth's most underappreciated beings. Each page is lush with closely observed detail: the iridescence of a beetle's exoskeleton, the velvety wing of a moth, the shadow cast by a single ant. Visually dazzling and rich with information, it is a book that will change the way you see the world and the trillions of tiny creatures scuttling and buzzing all around us." -- Lauren Redniss, author of Oak Flat and Radioactive
"It's generous of the insects to share their planet with us, and that's never been more powerfully (and charmingly) illustrated than by Peter Kuper. This book will reorient your understanding of humanity's place on earth." -- Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature
"Insectopolis will forever change the way you look at bugs. Peter Kuper masterfully intertwines natural and social history to show how insects shaped the evolution of all life on Earth and, also, how they have helped change the course of civilization throughout millennia. With heart, wit, erudition, and a boundless sense of beauty, Kuper reveals the wonders of the often-neglected realm of arthropods while poignantly reminding us that we, humans, are but fleeting visitors in it." -- Hernan Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Trust
"Stunningly beautiful and hugely informative, Insectopolis is a perfect example of the importance of merging the sciences and arts. What an achievement!" -- Andrea Wulf, author of Magnificent Rebels and The Invention of Nature
"Peter Kuper's Insectopolis is a visually stunning tribute to the world of bugs, revealing their profound impact on both nature and human history. I may not love insects yet, but after reading this, I'm definitely in awe of them." -- Gene Luen Yang, author of American Born Chinese



Book Information
ISBN 9781324035718
Author Peter Kuper
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co