A Family Story Wrapped Around a Strange Fish

Swedish journalist Patrik Svensson interweaves natural history with personal memoir in this book, tracing the eel's mysterious life cycle alongside memories of fishing for eels with his father.

He draws on centuries of scientific attempts to understand the European eel's breeding grounds and migration, a puzzle that occupied thinkers from Aristotle to Freud, while reflecting on family, mortality and the pull of the natural world.

A thoughtful choice for readers who enjoy literary nonfiction at the meeting point of nature writing and memoir.

Show Less