Description: At the end of human civilization, a new story begins! A bestselling new novel by Bernard Werber, with over 250,000 copies sold in France Humanity's civilization has reached its limits amid plague, terrorism, and war. Where will the new civilization that replaces it emerge? Bestselling author Bernard Werber's latest novel, Civilization (in two volumes), has been published by Open Books, translated by renowned French literature translator Jeon Mi-yeon. The novel is set in a world devastated by a pandemic that has killed billions, along with terrorism and war. When the book was first published in France in 2019, this dystopian backdrop might have seemed like a familiar literary trope. But living through the era of COVID-19, readers today will find this setting eerily vivid and real. Civilization takes place in a world where human civilization stands on the brink of collapse, and follows Bastet, the cat protagonist from Werber's earlier novel Cats, on a new adventure. The cats' immediate goal is to survive their harsh environment and fend off an exponentially growing horde of rats, but their ultimate goal is to build a new civilization to replace humanity's own. Along the way, they encounter pigs, cows, dogs, pigeons, and other animals who become both allies and enemies. Can Bastet succeed in fostering communication and cooperation among different animal species to achieve her goal? This novel is also a coming-of-age story for the female cat Bastet—more charming and lovable than any protagonist in Werber's previous works, with clear strengths and flaws alike. Join Bastet as she boldly takes on the challenge of founding a new civilization. A Message for Humanity, Told Through the Adventures of Cats While Civilization can be read as a standalone work, it originated from the story that began in Cats. Together, Cats and Civilization form a planned trilogy. Werber has long used animals like ants and cats, as well as transcendent beings like gods and angels, to portray the human world from fresh perspectives. In this trilogy, where humans play only a supporting role and animals take center stage, the author continually emphasizes the idea that "this world does not belong to humans alone." Many of the key animal characters in this novel—such as the cat Pythagoras and the rat Tamerlane—are former laboratory animals once kept in cages. In the pigs' "Trial of Humanity," animals who have suffered for the sake of human cuisine or entertainment take the stand one by one to testify. Through the voices of animals, the author conveys—sometimes seriously, sometimes with humor—a message that goes beyond animal rights protection: the need to dismantle human-centered thinking. Don't Miss the Encyclopedia of Relative and Absolute Knowledge Featured in the Book! Fans of Werber will surely take notice of the character Romain Wells in this new novel. He is a descendant of Edmond Wells, creator of the Encyclopedia of Relative and Absolute Knowledge, and a scientist striving to preserve knowledge in a ruined world. Characters bearing the surname Wells have appeared throughout Werber's body of work, from Edmond Wells in Empire of the Ants to Gabriel Wells in Death. In this novel, Romain Wells creates an "expanded edition" of the original encyclopedia by adding data from sources like the Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia. Tracing the legacy of the Wells family, who have been part of Werber's fictional universe for decades, and discovering this "expanded edition" of the encyclopedia adds another layer of enjoyment to the reading experience.