ELON MUSK: Risking it all offers exclusive new insights and first-hand interviews into the childhood that shaped Musk. From humble beginnings as an awkward Pretoria boy who loved comics, to the influence of his mother and the complex relationship with his father, Musk’s early years were crucial in forming his stellar ambitions.

Journalist and author Michael Vlismas traces his remarkable life, from his first years in America and development of his entrepreneurial vision to becoming the boundary-pushing billionaire with grand plans of inhabiting Mars. Thoroughly researched, this engaging book dispels several myths and offers other sides to the controversy around Musk’s father.

Vlismas attended the same school as Musk and has an intimate knowledge of the environment that shaped him. This is the story of a man utterly uncowed by risk who is driven to preserve the optimism he sees in humanity and to find a future for humans ‘out there among the stars’.