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Bibliographic Details

Title: The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World
Publisher: Ecco
Publication Date: 2021
Language: English
ISBN 10: 0062968823
ISBN 13: 9780062968821
Binding: paperback
Condition: Very Good
Weight: 2.315 pounds

About this title

Synopsis

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

Remarkably little is known about the European eel, Anguilla anguilla. So little, in fact, that scientists and philosophers have, for centuries, been obsessed with what has become known as the “eel question”: Where do eels come from? What are they? Are they fish or some other kind of creature altogether? Even today, in an age of advanced science, no one has ever seen eels mating or giving birth, and we still don’t understand what drives them, after living for decades in freshwater, to swim great distances back to the ocean at the end of their lives. They remain a mystery.

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.

About the Author

Patrik Svensson is an arts and culture journalist at Sydsvenskan newspaper. He lives with his family in Malm�, Sweden. The Gospel of Eels is his first book.

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Roundabout Books is a bookstore for book people: an independent, locally-owned bookstore in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts. Our physical shop is located in the old Diamond-Electric Soap Factory at 85 Pierce Street, just two blocks off Federal Street in Greenfield. We offer an extensive, organized, and thoughtful collection of used and new books at excellent prices. We hope you will find our store welcoming and that our love of books shows through in our work. If you are here in-person, come wander and browse an expansive collection of all genres, including poetry, science, history, literature in translation, and university presses. Enjoy our historic industrial building transformed, and envisioned as accessible and environmentally sustainable for the future. Please stop in or give us a call if you have questions for us!

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Roundabout Books, Inc.
16 West St., Greenfield, MA, 01301, U.S.A.

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