Sapiens: A Graphic History: The Birth of Humankind (Vol. 1) [Illustrated] 0063051338, 9780063051331

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Adapted under the coordination of Sapienship and Albin Michel Publishing (France) from Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. First published in Hebrew in 2011 by Kinneret, Zmora-Bitan, Dvir. First English language edition published in 2020 by HarperCollins Publishers. SAPIENS : A GRAPHIC HISTORY , THE BIRTH OF HUMANKIND (VOL . ONE ).

Copyright © 2020 by Yuval Noah Harari. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. First U.S. edition Cover design by Harold Peiffer Cover illustration by Daniel Casanave Creation and co-writing: Yuval Noah Harari Adaptation and co-writing: David Vandermeulen Adaptation and illustration: Daniel Casanave Colors: Claire Champion Editor (Albin Michel): Martin Zeller Sapienship Storytelling: Sponsorship and management: Itzik Yahav Management and editing: Naama Avital Editing and coordination: Naama Wartenburg Master text translation: Adriana Hunter Diversity consulting: Slava Greenberg www.sapienship.co Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for. Digital Edition OCTOBER 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-308796-5 Version 10152020 Print ISBN: 978-0-06-305133-1

To the extinct, the lost and the forgotten Everything that comes together is bound be dissolved. —YUVAL NOAH HARARI

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the following people, without whom this project would not have been possible: To David Vandermeulen and Daniel Casanave, who first came up with the idea of this graphic novel. Their creative genius has enabled the three of us to retell human history from a completely fresh perspective—I could not have done it without them. Their humor and intelligence made it a truly enjoyable experience. It has been sheer fun to work together. To Martin Zeller for editing the French text and enabling our bilingual team to work together smoothly. To Adriana Hunter, whose translation of the text from French to English not only To Claire Champion for coloring and adding depth to the illustrations. bridged many cultural gaps but also helped bring the characters to life. To Anne Michel, Lauren Triou, Aurelie Lapautre and the entire Albin Michel team who helped make this collaboration happen even in the midst of a global pandemic. To Professor Robin Dunbar, whose ideas inspired my thinking for many years, and who kindly agreed to be featured as a character. To Sapienship’s CEO and CMO, Naama Avital and Naama Wartenburg—for their guidance, their dedication and their ideas, and for making a captivating story emerge out of a sea of endless details—and to Daniel Taylor for ensuring that story gets printed worldwide. To the rest of the Sapienship team: Shay Abel, Michael Zur, Guangyu Chen, Hannah Morgan, Nina Zivy, Jason Parry, Galiete Gothelf, Erick Marchan and as a research assistant, Katia Zotovski, for their enthusiastic and professional work, whether in a cramped Tel Aviv apartment, in shiny new offices or locked down in their own homes. To Slava Greenberg for his invaluable input on human diversity and for saving us from many pitfalls. To my mother, Pnina Harari, for her continued support. To Itzik Yahav, my husband and cofounder of Sapienship, for his vision and faith, and his ability to not only dream big but also realize big dreams. —YUVAL NOAH HARARI My thanks to Professor Robin Dunbar and Antoine Balzeau of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. —DAVID VANDERMEULEN Thank you to my dear friends, Franck Bourgeron and Gilles Rochier. Thank you to Christian Lerolle for his help. —DANIEL CASANAVE Thank you to Noé, Caroline and Franck for their valuable help. —CLAIRE CHAMPION David Vandermeulen, Daniel Casanave and the editor, Martin Zeller, would like to thank Yuval Noah Harari for agreeing to embark on this illustrated adventure with them, and the Sapienship team for their unfailing support and their enthusiasm.

ALSO BY YUVAL NOAH HARARI 21 Lessons for the 21st Century Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

About the Author YUVAL NOAH HARARI, bestselling historian and philosopher, is considered one of the world’s most influential intellectuals today. His popular books have sold twenty-seven million copies and have been recommended by Barack Obama, Chris Evans, Janelle Monáe, Bill Gates, and many others. Harari has a PhD in history from the University of Oxford and now lectures at the department of history, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Sapiens has been translated into sixty languages and became an international bestseller in the United States, United Kingdom, France, China, Korea, and numerous other countries—with sixteen million copies sold worldwide. Harari is also the author of the bestsellers Homo Deus and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century . Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

ABOUT THE SPECIES OF THE GENUS HOMO Many of the specific characteristics of the ancient Homo species are still being studied and debated. This does not mean that everything is debatable. It can be said with certainty that several species of humans existed in the past. They lived in Africa, Asia and Europe. Some of them became extinct, others interbred and evolved. Nowadays, there is only one Homo species, us: Homo sapiens. All contemporary humans throughout the world are Homo sapiens.

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