A bewitching look at nonnative species in American ecosystems, by the heir apparent to McKibben and Quammen. Mosquitoes in Hawaii, sea lampreys in the Great Lakes, mountain goats in the Olympic Mountains of Washington State--not one of these species is native to the environment in which it now flourishes, sometimes disastrously. Kim Todd's Tinkering with Eden is a lyrical, brilliantly written history of the introduction of exotic species into the United States, and how the well-meaning endeavors of scientists, explorers, and biologists have resulted in ecological catastrophe. Todd's amazingly assured voice will haunt her readers, and the stories she tells--the astronomer who unleashed the gypsy moth in a botched effort to breed the silkworm, the druggist who brought starlings to America because he wanted the landscape to feature every bird mentioned by Shakespeare--will forever change how we see our increasingly afflicted landscape and its unanticipated inhabitants. Todd promises to become one of our new century's freshest voices, and Tinkering with Eden will delight, instruct, and astonish.