The Evolution of Life is unique in its focus on key principles, offering an accessible, unintimidating treatment of evolutionary biology. With adaptation through natural selection -- how the integrated complexity of living organisms comes about -- as its central theme, the text adopts a lucid narrative to explain the mechanism of evolution and its main outcomes.

Chapters are grouped into six themed parts -- basics, history, origins, adaptation, selection, and interaction -- and the text is regularly interspersed with descriptive headings that set out a clear path through the subject.