This is a bok about astrobiology, the science which attempts to understand if life as we know it is just an extraordinarily lucky accident or, in contrast, a species of cosmic imperative. The book traces a journey which starts with the Big Bang, the origin of the universe, space-time and matter; it then moves on to the creation of the first stars and galaxies, and the formation of the planetary systems; it recreates the beginnings of our solar system and allows us to witnesss the birth and evolution of life on Earth. After this broad sweep, life is presented as a natural, emergent phenomenon and we are invited to consider our first attempts to discover the exotic landscapes of the neighbouring planets. This is a book which renews the magic of the answer to the questions of who we are and how everything around us was formed.