Publishers Weekly
04/03/2023
“Infectious fungi and fungus-like pathogens are the most devastating disease agents on the planet,” contends Monosson (Natural Defense), a science writer and former toxicologist, in this startling warning. She details the ecological havoc wreaked by fungi, describing how they fueled the Irish potato famine in the 19th century, drove the American chestnut tree to near extinction in the early 20th century, and decimated the North American bat population in the 2010s. The author paints a frightening picture of what might come next: a virulent strain of fungus similar to the one that ravaged East Africa’s wheat plants in 1998 could adapt to overcome the genetic advantages of disease-resistant crops, or there could be a fungal disease outbreak among humans, as there was when cases of the antifungal-resistant yeast pathogen C. auris, which has a 30%–60% mortality rate, popped up around the world in 2015. The factors driving such crises, Monosson argues, include agricultural practices that reduce genetic diversity in crops and climate change (she notes some scientists believe that the adaptations that C. auris developed to survive in warmer environs also enabled it to tolerate the human body). Monosson keeps the discussions of fungi biology accessible, and the battery of case studies of fungal outbreaks underscores the urgency of the threat. This wake-up call should not go unheeded. (July)
M. R. O'Connor
"Monosson brings eloquence and clarity to her enigmatic subject: the often invisible existence of fungi and the incredible ways it influences and impacts our lives. In turn fascinating and frightening, Blight will alarm readers in the best possible way—by changing how they look at the world around them."
New York Times - Jennifer Szalai
"Unsettling . . . Blight emphasizes the decidedly unsalutary things that fungi can do."
Anne Biklé
"The spores are coming for us. But is blight our plight? Not if Emily Monosson has something to say about it. She shows us that solutions to this vexing problem lie with us. Our iconic human endeavors, from agriculture and gardening to globe-trotting, must accommodate nature’s needs. Monosson’s ideas can bear the needed fruit—a way of life that is better and safer for people and the many plants and animals on which we depend."
Booklist (starred review)
"Monosson commendably serves as a medical Paul Revere by persuasively warning us that dangerous fungi are already causing havoc . . . Neglecting these emerging organisms is truly hazardous to health."
Sierra - Heather Smith
"[Blight] is a short, crisp introduction to the possibility of being devoured by fungi."
The New York Review of Books - Elizabeth Kolbert
"Sobering. . . . Fungi sicken us and fungi sustain us. In either case, we ignore them at our peril."
Alan Weisman
"A book this endlessly fascinating, by an author whose astonishing zeal for detail makes her knowledge feel bottomless, is the crystal clear kind of science writing we need to face the changes we’ve wrought on this planet."
Susan Freinkel
"Time and again, our habits of global travel and commerce have let loose fungal pathogens with devastating effect, as Monosson shows in gripping stories of harmful fungi decimating frogs, bats, bananas, American chestnuts, white pines, and other species. These past fights add up to an indelible cautionary tale, making Blight required reading for the post-COVID age."
MARCH 2024 - AudioFile
Rosemary Benson's clear, melodic narration aids the listener in following the myriad threads that Emily Monosson weaves in this fascinating audiobook on fungi. Some fungi are good. But there is also a parade of horribles--such as the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome, which is decimating bat populations; rusts that have already pushed some chestnut trees into extinction; and Candida auris, which attacks immunocompromised hospital patients. Benson's clear fascination and mild alarm are contagious as she ably steers listeners through the risks brought by monoculture. (There used to be several different varieties of bananas, but now we all eat one.) Another concern is that as climate change continues, fungi are adapting to a warming planet even though they generally prefer the cold. A.B.
© AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-04-11
A fascinating look at infectious fungi, “the most devastating disease agents on the planet.”
A former toxicologist and author of Unnatural Selection, Monosson begins her latest book with a discussion of Candida auris, a fungal pathogen that was first described in 2009, when it was isolated from the ear of a Japanese woman. Deadly and highly resistant to antifungal drugs, C. auris has recently been flagged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a serious global health threat. While it might be new to Homo sapiens, “over the past century,” writes the author, “fungal infections have caused catastrophic losses in other species.” The uptick could be the result of climate change. For mammals, the author explains, the primary line of defense against fungal infection is body temperature, which is too warm for most fungi to thrive. However, a warmer general environment may enable fungi to “evolve a higher temperature tolerance” and “jump the temperature barrier.” Monosson takes readers on a tour of devastation wrought by various fungal pathogens in other species. She follows a biologist who set out to study frogs in Costa Rica and inadvertently ended up documenting the “great frog die off,” the result of an amphibian chytrid fungus. The author then moves on to rusts, a group of pathogenic fungi similar to mushrooms that infect trees. Beginning in the early 1900s, a rust called chestnut blight obliterated between 3 billion and 4 billion American chestnuts in a few decades, pushing the species into functional extinction. One of the more distressing fungi is Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which has killed North American bats in droves; the author describes “caves that smelled like death” and “mice eating moribund bats that were too ill to fend them off.” Monosson is a skilled writer, capable of translating complicated scientific topics into compelling layperson’s terms, and she crafts a thrilling narrative around even the less charismatic victims of fungal pathogens (bananas, for example).
An engrossing read with an urgent message about the next frontier of disease.
