10th Anniversary Edition: The Life You Can Save

This Tenth Anniversary Edition of The Life You Can Save Peter Singer brings his landmark book up to date.

“Part rational argument, part stinging manifesto, part handbook.” The New York Times

A Compelling Book That Inspires and Empowers People to Act Now to Address Global Poverty


In 2009, Peter Singer wrote the first edition of The Life You Can Save to demonstrate why we should care about and help those living in global extreme poverty, and how easy it is to improve and even save lives by giving effectively. Peter then founded a non-profit organisation of the same name, The Life You Can Save, to advance the ideas in the book. Together, the book and organization have helped raise millions of dollars for effective charities, supporting work protecting people from diseases, restoring sight, avoiding unwanted pregnancies, ensuring that children get the nutrients they need, and providing opportunities to not only survive, but thrive.

In the decade since the first book’s publication, dramatic progress has been made in reducing global extreme poverty. However, millions still live on less than $1.90 a day, and there is yet much to be done.

To address the continuing need, and to build on the success of the first edition, Singer acquired the book rights and updated the content to be current and even more relevant. This extraordinary 10th-anniversary edition of The Life You Can Save aims to inform, inspire and empower as many people as possible to act now and save lives.

In addition to restating his compelling arguments about how — and why — we should respond to extreme poverty, he examines the progress we are making, and recounts how the first edition transformed the lives both of readers and the people they helped. Learn how you can be part of the solution, doing good for others while adding fulfillment to your own life.



About the Author

Journalists have bestowed the tag of 'world’s most influential living philosopher' on Peter Singer, after his work on the ethics of the treatment of animals helped kickstart the modern animal rights movement. The influence that his writing has had on the development of effective altruism and his controversial critique of the sanctity of life ethics in bioethics has made him world-renowned as a thinker, and indeed author.

In 2021 Peter received the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture. The citation referred to his'widely influential and intellectually rigorous work in reinvigorating utilitarianism as part of academic philosophy and as a force for change in the world.' In accordance with his long-held views on philanthropy and altruism Peter donated the $1 million proceeds to the most effective organisations working to assist people in extreme poverty and to reduce the suffering of animals in factory farms.