"In the nineteen chapters that make up the book, Taussig reflects on a world on the brink of collapse; a world which is based on a "new normal" marked by the 'fantastic power of catastrophe' and the non-existence of the ordinary... Taussig's book helps one consider new paths for understanding our contemporary world and the various forms of violence, dominance and destruction that haunt us."-- "Anthropology Book Forum"
"Anthropologists (and those in allied disciplines) know Taussig as a stylistic innovator."--Times Literary Supplement

"Above all, he is interested in individual stories and experiences, unique tales that cannot be reduced to rational explanation or bland report. . . . At the center of Taussig's method is the anthropologist's desire to bear witness to what he cannot understand."--Los Angeles Review of Books

"One of the most accomplished writers that anthropology has produced."--Choice

"Iconoclastic, experimental, and poetic, refusing 'theory' even as he makes it do his work."--Hugh Raffles, The New School

"[This is] what anthropology is for: the art or science that shows fish the water. Taussig is renowned as one of its dizziest dialectical conjurors."--Times Higher Education

" [Taussig's] late career unfolds with vitality, ingenuity, and surprises--with the storytelling voice, finally, of a Marlowe."--George Marcus, University of California, Irvine-- "Praise for Michael Taussig"