Description

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If we were able to listen under water, what would we hear? What would we learn? How would it change us?

With erudition and charm, marine scientist and orator Bill François takes us on a deep dive into the secret lives of the world’s aquatic creatures, from musical whales and immortal eels to the cod that discovered America and the herring that almost caused a military conflict —to name but a few. We hear the songs of seahorses and scallops, eavesdrop on the conversations of lobsters, and swim in the glow of the fluorescent jellyfish.

A poetic blend of ancient myths, modern science, and storytelling through the ages, Eloquence of the Sardine is an invitation and guide to a dreamlike underwater world where the legends are often more believable than the incredible reality.

This is nature writing at its best —informative, captivating, and accessible, with a personal angle, about an endlessly fascinating and still mysterious subject.

A seafood platter or a day at the beach will never be the same.

About the Author

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Bill François is a physicist passionate about the marine world. He studied at the ENS school in Paris and then devoted himself to research on hydrodynamics. The eloquence contests he won, like the Le Grand Oral on France 2, propelled him to become passionate about his other world: that of words. He mixes these universes to relay the importance of protecting our oceans.

Antony Shugaar is a writer and translator. Aside from Giorgio Faletti’s A Pimp’s Notes, his recent translations include books by Simonetta Agnello Hornby, Silvia Avallone, Nanni Balestrini (with an NEA translation fellowship), Fabio Bartolomei, Massimo Carlotto, Giancarlo De Cataldo, Diego De Silva, Marco Mancassola, Gianni Rodari, and Paolo Sorrentino. He is the author of  Coast to Coast and I Lie for a Living and the coauthor, with the late Gianni Guadalupi, of Discovering America and Latitude Zero. He has published with the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and online with the New York Times, among other publications. He is currently at work on a book about translation for the University of Virginia Press.