Harari to publish 'extraordinary' debut middle grade book with PRH

Historian, philosopher and author Yuval Noah Harari, author of bestseller Sapiens, will publish an “extraordinary”  illustrated middle grade book about how humans came to dominate Earth with Penguin Random House children’s groups in the UK, US, Canada and Australia. 

Unstoppable Us: How Humans Took Over the World is the first book in a projected four-volume series and will be released by Puffin in the UK on October 20th. It will publish on 18th October in the US, Canada and Australia.

Commissioning editor Tom Rawlinson acquired UK, commonwealth and audio rights from Harari and will collaborate closely with Sapienship, the social impact company co-founded by Itzik Yahav and Harari in 2019, which is producing the series. The book contains full-colour illustrations by Ricard Zaplana Ruiz. 

The synopsis says: “Harari brings his talents to the page for young readers for the very first time to share how humans eventually came to dominate Earth. And how, through triumph and growth, but also relentless, destructive voracity, they became truly unstoppable. From learning to make fire and using the stars as guides, to inventing stories and cooperating in huge numbers, the secrets of how our ancestors evolved millions of years ago will be uncovered, revealing the superpowers that brought us to ‘now,’ and how they were used to make us invincible but also insatiable.” 

Harari said: “Unstoppable Us is the book that I wanted to read as a kid. It tells the history of humans since the time we were just apes living in the savannah until the time we almost became god-like by flying in airplanes and spaceships.  

“It’s a fun book—I hope young readers won’t want to put it down—and it’s also dead serious, aiming to preoccupy you with the questions it raises. Every question from why we have nightmares and why we like sugar to why people believe in gods and why there are so many wars. Unstoppable Us has one key message for kids: The world in which we live didn’t have to be the way it is. People made it what it is. And people can change it.” 

Rawlinson added: “We are overjoyed to be the UK publishing home for Yuval Noah Harari’s first children’s book – a work of extraordinary depth and startling insight with a perfect balance of gravity and humour. And we are proud to be part of a global publishing moment along with our colleagues in the USA and Canada.  

“This amazing book covers an extraordinary amount of ground—our human superpowers, our capacity to do good and bad, and the opportunities we have to make the world a better place—all illustrated with extraordinary imagination by Ricard Zaplana Ruiz. It is hugely important and deserves to have an important place in the world.”