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Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet… emerged as an outcome of an international and interdisciplinary conversation, which took place during the eponymous conference at the University of California in 2014. The book's contributors unpack controversies associated with the ‘anthropocene’, ‘a geologic[al] epoch in which humans have become the major force determining the continuing livability of the earth’ (p. G1). These controversies are associated with the superimposition of human and non-human living spaces, and the volume's two-part discussion gravitates towards the problem of masking the destructive effects of human civilization. The project's interdisciplinarity is its key feature—the book's chapters present research in anthropology, environmental studies, ecology, botany, bacteriology, zoology, developmental genetics, microbiology, evolutionary biology, particle physics, philosophy of science, feminist science, history, literature, and literary criticism. Unfortunately, the reader may feel irritated by the book's non-linear format. The volume is divided into two unnumbered sections, ‘Monsters of the Anthropocene’ and ‘Ghosts of the Anthropocene’. Both sections are positioned upside-down in relation to one another, and each begins immediately after the cover. Their pagination suggests that these are equal and independent components of the book: pages in the ‘Ghosts’ section are numbered G1 onward; pages of the ‘Monsters’ section are numbered M1 onward and both sections finish—and meet—in the centre of the book. There are indications, however, that the ‘Ghosts’ section ought to be read first.