Books at the Institute

Books at the Institute presents an evening with Laura Spinney, bestselling science journalist, novelist, and non-fiction writer, as she discusses her latest book, Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global.

Wednesday, October 15, 2025 at 6:30 p.m.
2 East 79th Street, New York, NY 10075

Ms. Spinney will be joined in conversation by Maria Sonevytsky.

 Book signing and light reception to follow.

General admission: $20 / UIA Friends: $15 / UIA Members: $10

One ancient language transformed our world. This is its story.

Star. Stjarna. Stare … Daughter. Duhitár. Dustr. Dukte.

Across thousands of miles, people look up at the night sky or call to their children, and in their words we hear the faint resonance of a shared past. English, Icelandic, Sanskrit, Armenian, Lithuanian, Persian — languages that seem worlds apart — are in fact branches of the same immense family. All trace their lineage back to a single, long-vanished tongue: Proto-Indo-European (PIE).

Five millennia ago, as the last ice age receded, this ancestral language burst from its cradle between Europe and Asia in a kind of Big Bang, fragmenting as it spread east and west. Its final speaker died thousands of years ago, yet echoes of Proto-Indo-European endure — not only in the words we speak today but in some of humanity’s greatest literary works, from the Rig Veda and Dante’s Inferno to the love poetry of Rumi and even The Lord of the Rings.

In Proto, acclaimed journalist Laura Spinney sets out to unravel this extraordinary odyssey. She retraces the migrations that carried Indo-European speech across continents: along the Caucasus and the Silk Roads, through the Hindu Kush and across the steppe. With her, we walk in the footsteps of nomads and monks, warriors and kings — the ancient peoples who seeded these languages far and wide. In the present, Spinney encounters the linguists, archaeologists, and geneticists who are piecing together this lost world. Their discoveries reveal not only how language shaped civilization, but also offer vital lessons for our own era, when people — and their words — are once again on the move.

Proto is a revelatory portrait of world history in its own words.

What others are saying about Proto:

“The story of how one language left the steppes of Ukraine and became the earth’s dominant language family has become clearer and more exciting than ever before. Hooray for a book where the author’s curiosity, diligence, and literary craft gets it all down in what will stand as the go-to source for a generation.” — John McWhorter, author of The Language Hoax

“The fascinating story of the ancient words that survive in the mouths of billions of speakers today.” — Henry Oliver, The Guardian

“A compelling portrait of a people thought lost to time … a remarkable account of humanity’s quest to rediscover its ancient origins.” — The Wall Street Journal

“An enormously refreshing and readable history of worlds that were physically far apart but, in a sense, spoke with a single voice.” — David Abulafia, Literary Review

Proto was reviewed in The Economist, The Guardian, New Scientist, Slate, Times Literary Supplement, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, and discussed on podcasts New Books Network and Unsupervised Learning. Financial Times named Proto as a Best Summer Book of 2025 (literary non-fiction).

Laura Spinney is a writer and science journalist. Her writing on science has appeared in The Guardian, The Economist, Nature and National Geographic, among others. She is the author of two novels, The Doctor (2001) and The Quick(2007), and a collection of oral history, Rue Centrale (2013). Her bestselling non-fiction account of the 1918 flu pandemic, Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World (2017), was translated into more than 20 languages. Her latest book, Proto: How Once Ancient Language Went Global, the story of the Indo-European languages, appeared in 2025. She lives in Paris.

Maria Sonevytsky is the author of Wild Music: Sound and Sovereignty in Ukraine (2019), Vopli Vidopliassova’s Tantsi (2023), and a forthcoming book on Soviet children’s musical culture at the Kyiv Palace of Pioneers in addition to numerous articles. She is a professor of Anthropology and Music at Bard College in the Hudson Valley of New York. As a musician, she has performed in venues ranging from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, punk cafés in Kyoto, to GogolFest in Kyiv.

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To have a copy of the book signed, Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global will be available for purchase ($29.95) at the Ukrainian Institute of America the evening of the event.

By purchasing a book from the UIA, you are supporting its continued cultural and educational programming and the further enjoyment of its unique events by our friends and community along New York’s Museum Mile.

For further information: Please contact the Ukrainian Institute of America at (212) 288-8660 or mail@ukrainianinstitute.org.

Author photo by Dominique Cabrelli. All rights reserved.

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Title: Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global
Author: Laura Spinney
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (May 13, 2025)
Hardcover: 352 pages
ISBN-10: 1639732586
ISBN-13:  978-1639732586
Item Weight: 1.25 pounds
Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.15 x 9.5 inches