Proto, it has to be said, is a dense read. Spinney’s approach is a thorough one, so that the chapters tack back and forth in time as we follow each of these branches in turn. It is easy to lose sight of the timeline while concentrating on the differences between Hittites, Hattians and Hurrians, between Lydians and Luwians. Spinney’s background is as a science journalist, and it shows in the way she has assimilated a vast amount of up-to-date scholarly information and presented it concisely and accurately. Nevertheless, this is still a knotty story ... Spinney leavens the history lesson with sections dealing with the present ... Proto is an impressive piece of work—hard but ultimately rewarding.
Beguiling and revelatory .... Spinney is a stylish and erudite writer; it’s the rare science book that quotes Keats, Seamus Heaney, and Ismail Kadare. She also has a keen sense of the romance of her subject ... Vivid.
There are between 1,000 and 2,000 PIE words, and Spinney’s book is at its most interesting when dealing with them ... In Spinney’s account, the Yamnaya nomads take PIE from the steppe to the edge of China, back into Europe, down through India and Iran. The combination of evidence from different disciplines makes this a compelling case.
