The Book of Time

Published by Penguin/Random House

Cover page & Illustrations
Unravel the mysteries of time, from the Maya calendar to Einstein’s wormholes, in this fun and fact-filled exploration.
In this thought provoking book, curious readers will discover all kinds of fascinating information about how and why we think about time. Chapters on mythology discuss Chronos, Janus, and the legend of the Phoenix. Others look at how different cultures perceive time–as a straight line or in circles? Young readers will learn how animals and plants tell time, how the study of longitude and latitude is related to clocks, and why an hour used to last one hundred minutes. Along the way, they’ll encounter historic time pieces such as sundials, chronometers, and Al-Jazari’s famous 12th-century elephant clock. The book also invites readers to ponder important questions about what time means to us today: can you actually save time? Can you run out of it? And is it really better to accomplish more in less time? These concepts are introduced in accessible chapters and illustrated with vibrant drawings. Absorbing and world-enlarging, this elegant book explores a challenging concept in an engaging way that encourages discussion and further learning.

Awards:
World Illustration Award Shortlisted Artist 2020

Reviews:
»The only thing you really need to enjoy this wonderful coffee table volume – is time.«
Eltern Family

»This book deals with philosophical and scientific questions in a playful way. This is due to the easy-to-understand texts as well as the amazing illustrations.«
Deutschlandfunk

»This non-fiction book is cleverly made: You can read it from cover to cover but you also get a lot out of it if you just dip in here and there.«
Berliner Zeitung

»Kathrin Köller and Irmela Schautz tell us about attempts in the history of humanity to grapple the concept of time, from the Babylonians to Stephen Hawking.«
Süddeutsche Zeitung

Prestel Verlag
Penguin Random House
Kathrin Köller