His first travel book, The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America, was published in 1989. He moved back to the United States in 1995. He wrote for the English newspapers The Times and The Independent, as well as supplementing his income by writing travel articles. In 1973, he went backpacking in England, where he eventually decided to settle. As Bill Bryson writes, 'We pass our existence within this wobble of flesh and yet take it almost entirely for granted.' The Body will cure that indifference with generous doses of wondrous, compulsively readable facts and information.īill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa on December 8, 1951. Full of extraordinary facts (your body made a million red blood cells since you started reading this) and irresistible Bryson-esque anecdotes, The Body will lead you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular. Bill Bryson once again proves himself to be an incomparable companion as he guides us through the human body-how it functions, its remarkable ability to heal itself, and (unfortunately) the ways it can fail.

As addictive as it is comprehensive, this is Bryson at his very best, a must-read owner's manual for everybody.

One of The Washington Post's 50 Most Notable Works of Nonfiction 2019 Bill Bryson, bestselling author of A Short History of Nearly Everything, takes us on a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body.

The human body a guide for occupants