"Lively, thought-provoking, and consistently surprising, this book forces us to think deeper about what authenticity and fakery really mean, at a time when such matters could hardly matter more. Lydia Pyne is the real deal. " -- Ed Yong, science journalist and author of New York Times bestseller I Contain Multitudes "Full of diverting tales." -- Mail on Sunday "In turns thought-provoking and entertaining , Genuine Fakes is a vital book in a world of fake news and the search for authenticity. It is an eloquent and surprising exploration of the objects around us, which compels us to ask where we draw the line between real and fake. Sometimes authenticity is no more important than a good story." -- Kate Wiles, Senior Editor, History Today " Genuine Fakes is full of fascinating stories about what Pyne shows is the thin and permeable line between real and fake in many more areas than I thought possible to combine so interestingly and gracefully. The book is packed with the human foibles that leave us vulnerable to the fake when our dreams are too big to be contained in the real.

" -- Erin Thompson, Professor of Art Crime, City University of New York "In this fascinating, interdisciplinary study, Lydia Pyne challenges us to reflect on the social factors that inspire the creation of replicas, simulations, and forgeries. Ambitious in scope and engagingly written , Genuine Fakes is an authentically wonderful read." -- Benjamin Gross, Vice President for Research and Scholarship, Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering and Technology "I ended up learning a lot from the tidbits and explanations that accompanied the stories of fakes that were once passed off as real.The examples used also made me pause and think a lot about how fake can become real and why in some cases (diamonds and paleolithic cave paintings) this is beneficial and a more ethical route to travel down. overall this was an interesting plunge into what makes or changes our perceptions of what is real." -- Dear Author "Author Pyne provides sufficient context to engage readers, explaining how curators and scientists have been duped in the past, and what they have learned as a result. This slightly off-beat account should be of great interest to collectors, amateur archaeologists, historians, and art connoisseurs ." -- Booklist Online " An intriguing exploration of ''frauds, forgeries, and fakes''.

Genuine history smartly explored. " -- Kirkus Reviews "Historian Pyne ( Seven Skeletons ) offers a thoughtful examination of what it is to be fake, using case studies ranging from instances of outright deception to clearly labeled recreations, with plenty of gray area in between. Pyne''s well-written survey illuminates the ramifications of various types of fakery, even while showing how murky the concept of what is fake can get ." -- Publishers Weekly "Pyne provides a convincing argument for why in the case studies presented we accept these ''genuine fakes'' are real in their own right and how our times and culture influence what we say and will accept as real. I would recommend this book to people who like interesting stories from history, art and the natural sciences ." - Ghost Reader (BookTube) "Nonfiction that is both information-dense AND fun to read is rare; Lydia Pyne has given us precisely that with Genuine Fakes . A book like this could easily become bone-dry, a slog of a read. But Pyne maintains an airiness throughout, treating the material with seriousness but never severity.

Everything unfolds with a very light touch. The result is a book that is very difficult to put down . The world is more than just real and not-real. There''s room for things that are real and inauthentic, just as there''s room for things that are authentic yet not real. Getting drawn into learning about those things is the real joy central to Genuine Fakes --a joy that you really ought to experience for yourself. " - The Maine Edge "The best chapters in Ms. Pyne''s book, "Genuine Fakes: How Phony Things Teach Us About Real Stuff," marry fine scientific explanation with cultural history and surprising twists . Her fascinating story of the development of artificial fruit flavorings, for example, reveals that the standard candy flavor for bananas resembles in taste the real bananas of the mid-19th century, when the flavor was first isolated.

" - Wall Street Journal.