An Immense World

How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

By: Ed Yong

Narrated by: Ed Yong

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “thrilling” (The New York Times), “dazzling” (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world that will fill you with wonder and forever alter your perspective, by Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Ed Yong

“One of this year’s finest works of narrative nonfiction.”—Oprah Daily

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Time, People, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Slate, Reader’s Digest, Chicago Public Library, Outside, Publishers Weekly, BookPage

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Oprah Daily, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Economist, Smithsonian Magazine, Prospect (UK), Globe & Mail, Esquire, Mental Floss, Marginalian, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY

The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world.

In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth’s magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and even humans who wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile’s scaly face is as sensitive as a lover’s fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries that remain unsolved.

Funny, rigorous, and suffused with the joy of discovery, An Immense World takes us on what Marcel Proust called “the only true voyage . . . not to visit strange lands, but to possess other eyes.”

WINNER OF THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON AWARD

Exceptional!

Highly recommended. Opens up a new perspective on animals, our senses, and how we all perceive the world as individuals, and how we impact each other.

The measure of my world

My world both shrunk and expanded as I listened to this marvelous book - as exposure to natural science has always affected me since childhood. There are so many possible senses I can never know! This makes my world seem smaller somehow at first, but as the narrative went on, my vision of the world also expanded. Thank you.

Highest level education

All those who still have much of their life’s time yet to live, should hear this book.

I am intensely grateful that I got to enjoy our planet during its last best years—when birds and animals were plentiful, our oceans were thriving, our water was clean, the air was fresh, the sky blue, (and people were thoughtful and honest.) I feel sorry for everyone who will never know what they are missing, I am a global cultural photographer who has witnessed the self righteous cruelty people inflict on every living thing when given the opportunity—especially if money or bragging rights are involved.

There is so much to say, and yet I shall leave you with my latest folly: I dearly miss waking up to songbirds and hearing them sing throughout my day. Indeed, 94% of the world’s birds are now extinct. 100 percent is just a few years away. A pity and a shame, isn’t it. And so much more to lose.

A guided tour through other species' sensory perceptions

This fascinating book give us a glimpse into how other species perceive and interact with the world, and how different from our own their senses frequently are. It is a wonderful book, read beautifully by the author. A joy to listen to, think about and learn from.

Expansive, poetic and mind blowing!

This was a wonderful audio book! It was the perfect compelation of data, ecology, poetry, story and social justice. Ed Yong's voice is soothing and sharp. This book fed my nerdy curiosity while also calling me to practice with this gift/human talent of imagining other umwelts. So rich! Worthy of deep attention! Highly recommended!