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Christian Dittus
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English

FATHOMS

Rebecca Giggs

The World in the Whale

A stunning meditation on the awe-inspiring lives of whales, revealing what they can teach us about ourselves, our planet, and our relationship to other species.

What can whales reveal about our world today? When writer Rebecca Giggs encountered a humpback whale stranded on her local beachfront in Australia, she began to wonder how the lives of whales shed light on the condition of our seas. Fathoms: the world in the whale blends natural history, philosophy, and science to explore: How do whales experience ecological change? Will our connection to these storied animals be transformed by technology? What can observing whales teach us about the complexity, splendour, and fragility of life? In Fathoms, we learn about whales so rare they have never been named, whale songs that sweep across hemispheres in annual waves of popularity, and whales that have modified the chemical composition of our planet's atmosphere. We travel to Japan to board the ships that hunt whales, and delve into the deepest seas to discover the plastic pollution now pervading their undersea environment.

In the spirit of Rachel Carson and Rebecca Solnit, Giggs gives us a vivid exploration of the natural world even as she addresses what it means to write about nature at a time of environmental crisis. With depth and clarity, Giggs outlines the challenges we face as we attempt to understand the perspectives of other living beings, and our own place on an evolving planet. Evocative and inspiring, Fathoms marks the arrival of an essential new voice.

Rebecca Giggs is a writer from Perth, Western Australia. Her work has been widely published, including in Best Australian Essays, Best Australian Science Writing, Best Australian Stories, Granta, Aeon, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, and Griffith Review. Rebecca's nonfiction focuses on how people feel about, and feel for, animals in a time of technological change and ecological crisis.
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Published 2020-04-01 by Scribe Publications

Comments

"[An] astonishing, desolating, exasperating, utterly original debut ... The language of Fathoms has a remarkable, almost gothic intensity. The style is vivid and estranging and luridly compelling, full of weird lights and unexpected textures ... a remarkable literary event." —The Monthly "Lyrical, meditative and deeply researched, this gorgeous book by WA writer Rebecca Giggs is one to linger over." —The Weekend West

"The book is a masterpiece. I am astonished that it is Giggs's first, for it reads like the work of a far more experienced author ... Giggs's exquisite prose is so striking as to be almost poetic, pulling the reader up constantly, either to savour a particularly apposite phrase, or to ponder a deep, unexpected connection. If a whale warrants a pause, then Fathoms warrants many." (Tim Flannery)

UK: Scribe; USA: Simon & Schuster; Italy: Aboca Edizioni; Korea: BADA Publishing; Slovakia: IKAR; Spain: Capitán Swing;

"Fathoms is perhaps the finest book written about whales since Moby Dick was published 170 years ago. It's also one of the best accounts I've ever read of the interaction, intended and unintended, between humans and other species — a work of genuinely literary imagination." — Verlyn Klinkenborg, New York Review of Books "A work of bright and careful genius. Equal parts Rebecca Solnit and Annie Dillard, Giggs masterfully combines lush prose with conscientious history and boots-on-the-beach reporting. With Giggs leading us gently by the hand we dive down, and down, and down, into the dark core of the whale, which, she convincingly reveals, is also the guts of the world." — Robert Moor, New York Times bestselling author of On Trails: An Exploration "With remarkable detective work, author Rebecca Giggs explores the habitats and migratory patterns of whales to reveal a great deal about them, and even more about us. It is a hauntingly beautiful examination of the moral force of animals, offering hope as well as despair." — Herald Sun "[A] lyrical, wide-ranging meditation on whales and their complex relationship with humanity Meticulously researched and full of fascinating information. — Books+Publishing "Rebecca Giggs' Fathoms is a triumph, a deliciously rich work of art that, as if by magic, combines exquisite prose that floats off the page and into your heart with scientific accuracy and epic scope. This is by far the best book about whales I have ever read. What an achievement!" — Wendy Williams, author of New York Times bestseller The Horse: The Epic History of Our Noble Companion "Fathoms is a marvel: a glorious, prismatic, deeply affecting hymn to the beauty, majesty, and extremity of whales and the human imagining of them." — James Bradley, author of Clade "Fathoms reads like a poem. Its virtuoso thinking is a revelation. I can't think of many books in which love for the world and uncompromising, ever-deepening rigour come together in this way. Time slows down. This book makes a permanent dent in the reader." — Maria Tumarkin, author of Axiomatic

"[N]ot only the creatures at the heart of this book come alive on these pages, but a whole ecology. Fathoms immediately earns its place in the pantheon of classics of the new golden age of environmental writing."

Winner, Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction 2021 Winner, NIB Literary Award 2020 Finalist, Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction 2020 Finalist, Stella Prize 2021

"A thoughtful, ambitiously crafted appeal for the preservation of marine mammals." (starred review)

"There is much to marvel at here Deeply researched and deeply felt, Giggs' intricate investigation, beautifully revelatory and haunting, urges us to save the whales once again, and the oceans, and ourselves." (starred review)