Sample
  • Fathoms

  • The World in the Whale
  • By: Rebecca Giggs
  • Narrated by: Shiromi Arserio
  • Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (51 ratings)

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Fathoms

By: Rebecca Giggs
Narrated by: Shiromi Arserio
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Publisher's summary

Winner of the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction * Finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction * Finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

A “delving, haunted, and poetic debut” (The New York Times Book Review) about the awe-inspiring lives of whales, revealing what they can teach us about ourselves, our planet, and our relationship with other species.

When writer Rebecca Giggs encountered a humpback whale stranded on her local beachfront in Australia, she began to wonder how the lives of whales reflect the condition of our oceans. Fathoms: The World in the Whale is “a work of bright and careful genius” (Robert Moor, New York Times best-selling author of On Trails), one that blends natural history, philosophy, and science to explore: How do whales experience ecological change? How has whale culture been both understood and changed by human technology? What can observing whales teach us about the complexity, splendor, and fragility of life on Earth?

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 how plastic pollution pervades our earth’s undersea environment.

With the immediacy of Rachel Carson and the lush prose of Annie Dillard, Giggs gives us a “masterly” (The New Yorker) 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, she 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 “immediately earns its place in the pantheon of classics of the new golden age of environmental writing” (Literary Hub).

©2020 Rebecca Giggs (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Editor's Pick

Deep and Vivid Insights from the Natural World
Poetry and nature writing seem to complement each other perfectly. Maybe we see ourselves more purely in reflections of the natural world, or there is some sort of inherent musicality to how we perceive our environments. Award-winning science writer Rebecca Giggs is also a poet, and she brings her astute prose and contemplative voice to Fathoms. It’s a meditative title that covers vast expanses of thought. Centered and focused on whales, Giggs draws deep insights from these large animals on a variety of topics with the detail and accuracy you’d expect from a science writer, but the grace, philosophy, and aesthetic of a refined novelist. Fathoms is something you have to hear to truly appreciate Giggs’s deft perspective, and to live the life of such a mystical animal. —Michael D., Audible Editor