All of Earth’s oceans, from the equator to the poles, are a single engine powered by sunlight - a blue machine.

Human history has been dictated by the ocean; the location of cities, access to resources, the gateway to new lands have all revolved around water. We live inside the weather the ocean generates and breathe in what it breathes out. Yet despite our dependence, our knowledge of its totality is minimal.

In a book that will re-calibrate our view of this defining feature of our planet, physicist Helen Czerski dives deep to illuminate the murky depths of the ocean engine, examining the messengers, passengers and voyagers that live in it, travel over it, and survive because of it. From the Ancient Polynesians who navigated the Pacific by reading the waves, to permanent residents of the deep like the Greenland shark that can live for hundreds of years, she explains by way of vast currents, invisible ocean walls and underwater waterfalls how all have their place in the oceans’ complex interlinked system.

Timely, elegant, and passionately argued, The Blue Machine is one of the biggest stories ever told. Its understanding is crucial to our future. Drawing on years at the forefront of marine science, Helen Czerski captures the magnitude and subtlety of this complex force, showing us the thrilling extent to which we are at the mercy of this great engine.