Rope, by Tim Queeney. St. Martin’s Press, New York; us.macmillan.com/books/9781250346452/rope.
Hardcover, illus. 336 pp., $27.00
On sale August 12, 2025; pre-order at The WoodenBoat Store,
www.woodenboatstore.com.
Imagine a story that begins with a caveman running across an Alpine meadow and ends with platforms floating in space, tethered to Earth by shimmering strands of graphite. This story would be Tim Queeney’s Rope, the latest in a genre of nonfiction that celebrates the material in our lives, a rich history just waiting to be told beneath some comfortingly unambiguous title: Color. Salt. Cod. Oranges. And now Rope, in which the author has unspooled the full scope of fiber-assisted triumphs in human progress.