![The Book of Eels](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
![The Book of Eels](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
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The Book of Eels
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- 135,00 kr
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- 135,00 kr
Publisher Description
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Trying to understand the eel can be a very (ahem) slippery task. Swedish journalist Patrik Svensson breaks down the strange mythologies and cultural ideas surrounding this miniature sea monster, exploring why it’s captured our imaginations for so long. Between the eel’s inherent weirdness—it turns out scientists aren’t even 100 percent sure about how they reproduce!—and Svensson’s rich, vivid language, The Book of Eels can sometimes feel more like fantasy than marine biology. Svensson reveals a deeply personal reason for his own fascination with the elusive creature, detailing happy childhood memories of eel fishing with his late father. We love how he takes the long view of his chosen subject, tapping the wisdom of everybody from Aristotle to Sigmund Freud as he examines eels’ social, migratory, and eating habits—and how humans perceive it all. Alex Wyndham’s narration is pitch-perfect, capturing all the enthusiasm and delight of Svensson’s writing as he teases out unlikely parallels between this elusive creature and the human condition. By the end, we were new members of the eel fan club.