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The Book Of Eels Our Enduring Fascination With The Most Mysterious Creature In The Natural WorldStock informationGeneral Fields
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DescriptionLos Angeles Times Bestseller IndieBound Bestseller A New York Times Editor's Choice One of Forbes' "Best Summer Reads for Those Stuck Inside Working Remotely" One of the LA Times' "21 New and Classic Books to Keep You in Touch with the Natural World" One of NPR Science Friday's Best Science Books of the Summer Part H Is for Hawk, part The Soul of an Octopus, The Book of Eels is both a meditation on the world's most elusive fish--the eel--and a reflection on the human condition Drawing on a breadth of research about eels in literature, history, and modern marine biology, as well as his own experience fishing for eels with his father, Patrik Svensson crafts a mesmerizing portrait of an unusual, utterly misunderstood, and completely captivating animal. In The Book of Eels, we meet renowned historical thinkers, from Aristotle to Sigmund Freud to Rachel Carson, for whom the eel was a singular obsession. And we meet the scientists who spearheaded the search for the eel's point of origin, including Danish marine biologist Johannes Schmidt, who led research efforts in the early twentieth century, catching thousands upon thousands of eels, in the hopes of proving their birthing grounds in the Sargasso Sea. Blending memoir and nature writing at its best, Svensson's journey to understand the eel becomes an exploration of the human condition that delves into overarching issues about our roots and destiny, both as humans and as animals, and, ultimately, how to handle the biggest question of all: death. The result is a gripping and slippery narrative that will surprise and enchant. |