THE BOOK OF EELS: OUR ENDURING FASCINATION WITH THE MOST MYSTERIOUS CREATURES IN THE NATURAL WORLD. By Patrik Svensson.

# (2019) 2020 1st English edition. 8vo (142 x 217mm). Ppvi,241. Bibliography. Black boards, spine titled in grey.

# Translated from the Swedish by Agnes Broome. "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 fresh water, to swim great distances back to the ocean at the end of their lives." "Without a doubt, the most delicious natural history book of the decade. Svensson's prose effortlessly undulates between his own personal experience and a thousand years of scientific enquiry. But it's his call to conservation - not just of this noble eel but of our memories both personal and cultural - that truly elevates this remarkably poignant work," Mark Siddall, curator and professor, American Museum of Natural History. Chapters include: The eel; By the stream; Aristotle and the eel born of mud; Looking into the eyes of an eel; Sigmund Freud and the eels of Trieste; Illegal fishing; The Dane who found the eel's breeding ground; Swimming against the current; The people who fish for eel; Outwitting the eel; The uncanny eel; To kill an animal; Under the sea; Setting an eel trap; The long journey home; Becoming a fool; The eel on the brink of extinction; In the Sargasso Sea.