Literature is a technology like any other. The writers we revere—from Homer to Shakespeare, Austen to Ferrante—each made a unique technical breakthrough that can be viewed as both a narrative and neuroscientific advancement. But literature's great invention was to address problems we could not solve: not how to start a fire or build a boat, but how to live and love; how to maintain courage in the face of death; how to account for the fact that we exist at all. Wonderworks tells the story of the greatest literary inventions through the ages, from ancient Mesopotamia to modern-day America. From ancient Chinese lyrics to fairy tales, slave narratives to contemporary TV shows, Wonderworks walks us through the evolution of literature's crucial blueprints, and offers us a new understanding of its power.