LoveReading Says
A clarion call of a read, explore the unknown in deep ocean waters, discover fascinating history, observe our effect on our environment, and reach for hope in our future. This is a book that offers much, and should find a space in every library, on every home bookshelf. Award-winning author James Bradley makes it very clear that oceans are at the centre of life on our planet, including human life. The oceans act as both magnet and barrier to the humans who live around and on it, and we need attempt to understand our relationship in order to understand our effect on the world as a whole. We are at the stage where scientists do not know how to reverse some of the catastrophic results of human interference, can we learn our lessons, can we yet make a difference? The fabulous Robert Macfarlane declares Deep Water as a major achievement: “Bradley’s skills both as novelist and essayist converge here to create this wise, compassionate, and urgent book…”. Scanning the wide ranging chapter titles gives a clue as to the depth and scope, from migrations to echo, net to cargo, beaches to deep, you begin to get some idea of what is to come. I read with eyes open wide, I was fascinated and felt connected, startled and in shock, but also energised and hopeful. This is a book that feels as though it is for everyone, it’s inclusive and welcoming even as it plunges deeply into the environmental emergency we have created. There was no option other than to add this to our LoveReading Star Books collection, and I’ve also chosen it as a Liz Pick of the Month. So eloquent and beautiful, Deep Water acts as a beacon of warning while shining a bright light of hope on our underwater world.
Liz Robinson
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Deep Water Synopsis
"Deep Water is a major achievement....Bradley's skills both as novelist and essayist converge here to create this wise, compassionate and urgent book, characterized throughout by a clarity of prose and a bracing moral gaze that searches water, self and reader." -ROBERT MACFARLANE, bestselling author of Underland
In this thrilling work-a blend of history, science, nature writing, and environmentalism-acclaimed writer James Bradley plunges into the unknown to explore the deepest recesses of the natural world.
Seventy-one percent of the earth's surface is ocean. These waters created, shaped, and continue to sustain not just human life, but all life on Planet Earth, and perhaps beyond it. They serve as the stage for our cultural history-driving human development from evolution through exploration, colonialism, and the modern era of global leisure and trade. They are also the harbingers of the future-much of life on Earth cannot survive if sea levels are too low or too high, temperatures too cold or too warm. Our oceans are vast spaces of immense wonder and beauty, and our relationship to them is innate and awe inspired.
Deep Water is both a lyrically written personal meditation and an intriguing wide-ranging reported epic that reckons with our complex connection to the seas. It is a story shaped by tidal movements and deep currents, lit by the insights of philosophers, scientists, artists and other great minds. Bradley takes readers from the atomic creation of the oceans, to the wonders within, such as fish migrations guided by electromagnetic sensing. He describes the impacts of human population shifts by boat and speaks directly and uncompromisingly to the environmental catastrophe that is already impacting our lives. It is also a celebration of the ocean's glories and the extraordinary efforts of the scientists and researchers who are unlocking its secrets. These myriad strands are woven together into a tapestry of life that captures not only our relationship with the planet, but our past, and perhaps most importantly, what lies ahead for us.
A brilliant blend of Robert MacFarlane's Underland, Susan Casey's The Underworld, and Simon Winchester's Pacific and The Atlantic, Deep Water taps into the essence of our planet and who we are.
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