Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari’s wildly popular work on the origins and nature of humanity will be made accessible to readers who don’t gravitate to science books
Illustrative: A skull of Homo sapiens, al-Kafza cave, Middle Paleolithic Period, ca. 85,000 years ago. (Courtesy Israel Museum)
JTA — For anyone intimidated to start reading Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari’s wildly popular book “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” help is on the way: A graphic novel version will be available next month.
“Sapiens: A Graphic History” will be narrated by a caricature of Harari and reimagines human evolution as a reality television show.
It’s the first of four planned volumes covering the material in the bestselling book, which has sold 16 million copies in 60 languages worldwide.
The aim is to interest readers who don’t usually engage with science and history, according to Harari’s website.
Professor Yuval Noah Harari, whose bestseller book, ‘Sapiens,’ is the basis of the Israel Museum’s new exhibit (Courtesy Yuval Noah Harari)
The nonfiction book charts the course of the development of humans from their origins as cognitively gifted hunter-gatherer primates to their development of civilization and culture from prehistory to modernity. It was originally published in Hebrew as a textbook for Harari’s students at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories
Comics artists David Vandermeulen and Daniel Casanave collaborated on the graphic novel as co-writer and illustrator, respectively.
In 2019, Harari and his husband, Itzik Yahav, co-founded Sapienship: a social impact company, with projects in the fields of entertainment and education. Sapienship tries to focus public conversation on today’s global challenges.
Advertisement
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this,please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
