Description

***AMAZON BEST BOOK OF DECEMBER***
***A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF THE YEAR***
***LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER***

A young queer science writer on some of the ocean’s strangest creatures and what they can teach us about human empathy and survival

‘A miraculous, transcendental book’ ED YONG
‘An astonishing debut’ GUARDIAN

As a mixed Chinese and white non-binary writer working in a largely white, male field, science journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments.

Each essay in their debut collection profiles one such creature: the mother octopus who starves herself while watching over her eggs, the Chinese sturgeon whose migration route has been decimated by pollution and dams, the bizarre Bobbitt worm (named after Lorena) and other uncanny creatures lurking in the deep ocean, far below where the light reaches. Imbler’s debut weaves the wonders of marine biology with stories of their own family and coming of age, implicitly connecting endangered sea life to marginalised human communities and asking how they and we adapt, survive and care for each other.

This far-reaching, unique collection shatters our preconceptions about the sea and what it means to survive.

‘Astounding’ PHILIP HOARE
‘A revelation’ ISABELLA TREE

Publisher Review

This is a miraculous, transcendental book... To write with such grace, skill, and wisdom would be impressive enough; to have done so in their first major work is truly breathtaking. Sabrina Imbler is a generational talent, and this book is a gift to us all -- ED YONG, New York Times Bestselling author of I Contain Multitudes How do we place our selves in the natural world? What are the costs and gains of our attachment to it? Where would you put Sabrina Imbler's astounding book on the shelf? In a separate section, marked: Awe and Wonder -- PHILIP HOARE, author of New Statesman Book of the Year Albert & the Whale It's a marvel - a beautiful, stirring exploration of the human condition, and the webs and patterns of life that miraculously resonate with it, all the way from the ocean. To find the conundrums of human sexuality and identity reflected back at you by a jellyfish is nothing short of a revelation. Reading this book was an entrancing, provocative, unforgettable experience -- ISABELLA TREE, author of Wilding - the Return of Nature to a British Farm Imbler is a terrific talent... with brutal candor and elegant metaphor, [My Life in Sea Creatures] reveals the gap between where we are today and a truly inclusive and connected world. In so doing, it also threads the loophole, weaving the outlines of a future where art and science amplify one other * Science Magazine * Imbler pulls off an impressive feat: a book about the majestic, bewildering undersea world that also happens to be deeply human * Vogue US * A delicious balance of the zoological and the personal. Imbler manages to gaze both inward to the self and outward to the strange selves of the creatures in the world's waters -- ROWAN HISAYO BUCHANAN, prize-winning author of Starling Days and Harmless Like You A luminous interweaving of the human and the non-human, My Life in Sea Creatures is an ingenious book that shows, with a glittering skill, how the precious life around us enriches our world and our ways of living. This is nature writing with an open and daring heart -- SEAN HEWITT, author of All Down Darkness Wide Imbler's ability to balance illuminating science journalism with candid personal revelation is impressive, and the mesmerizing glints of lyricism are a treat. This intimate deep dive will leave readers eager to see where Imbler goes next * Publishers Weekly * A superb must-read... [a] collection of fascinating essays [which] explores the wonders of rivers and oceans in the light of the writer's own life * Tablet * Compulsively readable, beautifully lyric, and wildly tender... A breathtaking, mesmerizing debut from a tremendous talent -- KRISTEN ARNETT, New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things and With Teeth [This book] marks the arrival of a phenomenal writer creating an intellectual channel entirely their own, within which whales and feral goldfish swim by the enchantment, ache, and ecstasy of human life -- MEGHA MAJUMDAR, New York Times bestselling author of A Burning Sabrina Imbler's glittering prose is as supple as an octopus, and their subject matter-whether writing about sea creatures or their own shape-shifting soul-as elemental as the ocean itself. And like the sea, [their book] is profound, surprising, and thrillingly strange. I love it -- SY MONTGOMERY, NYT bestselling author of How To be A Good Creature and The Soul of an Octopus Sabrina Imbler writes with incredible curiosity, compassion, and wit. This is a book that asks us to care not simply for one another, but for creatures far distant from us-for the sea, the land, and the worlds we make together -- JESSICA J. LEE, author of Two Trees Make A Forest Compelling, distinctive and enthralling, Sabrina Imbler has found a whole new way to help us think about and care about the deep and interweaving curiosities of human life and sea life. Popsci meets queer memoire, with brave, illuminating and unexpected results -- HELEN SCALES, author of The Brilliant Abyss A pinwheel of awe spinning one 'wow' after another -- SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA, author of How to Pronounce Knife