July global nonfiction: The ‘hidden’ creature and histories that best tell our shared stories

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Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites, Dino Martins

There is the tapeworm, which can grow 120 feet within the gut of a whale. The tsetse fly, a notorious vector of disease, whose needle-like mouth can pierce even crocodile skin. And the most universal symbol of parasitic behaviour: the much-mythologised leech. Long villainised, yet vital to every ecosystem on Earth, these parasitic creatures have driven evolution, shaped civilisations, and altered the course of human history. And we have almost entirely ignored them.

Entomologist and biologist, Dino Martins, from Kenya's Turkana Basin – where life on Earth began – has made it his life's mission to demystify these beguiling beings. Hidden Creatures takes us on a journey around the world ten times over – from the wilds of East Africa to the rainforests of the Amazon, from Borneo to the public parks of London. Along the way, we encounter brilliant and eccentric experts and students who join Martins on his adventures to investigate not just parasites but their astonishing cast of hosts: elephants and rhinos, hyraxes and hippos, and, of course, the elusive human.

American Alt: A True Story of Madness and Friendship in a Fractured Country, Chris Lockhart

On the eve of...

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