A geographer's exploration of the world's unseen boundaries from the Malaria Belt to Tornado Alley

'A triumph, a volume of great good sense and imagination which brims with fascinations' SPECTATOR 'A truly original adventure into new ways of exploring what we mean by a sense of place' SIMON JENKINS 'Shows the unexpected side-effects of human-drawn borders' FINANCIAL TIMES 'A wise and thought-provoking series of raids across borders we thought we knew' IAIN SINCLAIR Our world has innumerable boundaries, ranging from the obvious - like oceans and mountain ranges - to the intangible - like subtle differences in language or climate. Most of us cross invisible lines all the time, but rarely do we stop to consider them. Invisible Lines presents 30 such unseen boundaries, intriguing and unexpected examples of the myriad ways in which we collectively engage with and experience the world. From football fans in Buenos Aires to air quality in China, Paris' banlieues to sub-Saharan Africa's Malaria Belt, the invisible boundaries that shape our experiences and existence provide a compelling guide to seeing and understanding our world anew.

"An illuminating glimpse of the chain reactions of human and physical geography" - Financial Times

"A chance to see the world anew through the eyes of a wonderfully curious new writer" - Observer

"A fascinating exploration of the lesser-known and more subtle borders across the earth and the surprising ways in which they shape our lives" - i news

"A triumph, a volume of great good sense and imagination which brims with fascinations" - The Spectator

"Invisible Lines is a fascinating, detailed exploration of the hidden boundaries that carve up the world ... it is a pleasure to accompany Samson to the Malaria Belt, inside eruvim (markers of a single domestic space within which fewer Sabbath regulations apply), or along the border of Portugal to discover why vultures prefer not to cross it." - Telegraph

"[An] intricately detailed explanation of how each invisible line came to be, as well as what it can tell us about the world and our place within it...a fascinating read" - Geographical Magazine, Book of the Month

"Samson's clear and concise writing, his engaging style and the wide range of topics he covers makes Invisible Lines an absorbing study of the boundaries we set to divide and demarcate the physical and cultural worlds and how this affects us in our day-to-day lives" - Winnipeg Free Press

"Samson is an amiable and knowledgeable guide to the world's countless invisible lines. Sometimes it's hard to detect at ground level, or appearing subjectively draM on a map, their power is nonetheless immense." - The Bookseller