You won't know the answer to the title's question when you've finished What is Life? by Ed Regis, but, if you haven't already read deeply in this philosophical/scientific subject, you will learn a lot from the author's concise presentation of various efforts to define biological existence and create life. The most intellectually compelling part of what is basically a long essay is the author's analysis of man's own efforts to make living physical--well, things--out of inanimate ingredients. But the central mystery remains as mysterious as ever--in my opinion there will never be an answer (as there will never be an answer to "What is consciousness?"). And so maybe the song lyric--"just a bowl of cherries"--is ultimately no worse a response than all the research in the world might provide.