This was a mesmerizing book! Growing up with a zoologist mother, I was always fascinated by animals and in particular weird creatures like eels. I found the chapter on Freud's time in Trieste, Italy especially interesting. Great storytelling and much to be learned from in this book.

Many thanks to HarperCollins and Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was great. Eels are one of those animals that simultaneously fascinate and freak me. Svensson seamlessly integrates science and natural history this with his own narratives and experiences. Fans of Helen MacDonald's will appreciate this book. While its not the book for someone who just wants to learn about eels, straight up, Svensson leaves the reader with a lot to consider and admire about the animal.

This was a very interesting book, I have never given much thought to eels but there's a lot to enjoy about the topic. I also enjoyed the tone of the writing, it was easy to get into and flowed very well. There were a few spots that were repetitive, sometimes a phrase was word-by-word used a few times but it was still a very enjoyable read.

This book could not make up its mind what it was. The first part was science book plus memoir about the authors father and eel fishing. The second part had less science and a whole lot more musing on philosophy and religion. This could have worked but mostly ended up a mess. I went in expecting more science of eels and got a meandering history of eels in popular imagination and literature and memories of fishing with my dad more than science. It also took me 3 months to read this, which is never a good sign.

Finally, and this is my soap box, this would be a three star book had it used footnotes. It had a list of main sources by chapter but not enough for all the eel facts cited and if they were all, then a few chapters relied on a very few number of sources and readers should know that. Second, especially, when discussing research that people have spent most of their lives on this work, it needs to be cited. This is the second time I have written this in a review today, but it is unethical to do otherwise. I will continue to hold this belief on all popular science books that without footnotes, there is no ability to judge the quality of the sources and it fails to give credit to the hard work that went into the research that is being used for the book.

Netgalley ARC. I finished this last minute. I, of course, was interested in learning about the eel, and I did. But I feel like the book meanders in a sophomoric philosophical fashion, which prompted me to take way longer than I should have reading it. His prose is best when he's detailing his eel fishing adventures with his father. But even there, he forgoes familial intimacy in favor of heavily detailed descriptions of fishing itself. Which I get. It was bonding time with his father. But, subjectively, there were moments that were too graphic for this vegetarian. If have preferred straight science and history without the pontificating. And the weirdly proselytizing moments mentioning Christianity that didn't fit, especially for an ostensibly irreligious writer.

In short, I wanted more eel and less weird babble about Freud's weirdness about Italian women. (less)

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is republished here with permission.

An eel's testicles don't usually leap to mind when one thinks of Sigmund Freud. Yet Freud discovered this "holy grail of natural science" when the answer had eluded many before him. The eel is unusually difficult to study-- "Science has come up against many mysteries, but few have proven as intractable and difficult to solve as the eel." Some of the most famous natural scientists in history have tried to find answers, mostly in vain.

In The Book of Eels, Patrik Svensson, a Swedish arts and culture journalist at the newspaper Sydsvenskan, traces the history of efforts to unfurl the enigma of the eel. Though we know more today than when Aristotle gave it his best shot, the eel remains a fascinating puzzle in the modern era. "Somewhere in the darkness and mud, the eel has managed to hide away from human knowledge," forcing scientists to rely, to some extent, on faith.

An eel can live 50 to 80 years, during which time it metamorphosizes multiple times, dictated not by time, but by migration location. We "know" the eel procreates in the equally curious Sargasso Sea, yet no one has ever seen a mature eel or eels mating there. Answers seem only to create more questions, rendering the eel a perpetually interesting riddle with no end. Winner of the 2019 August Prize for nonfiction, The Book of Eels is nature writing at its finest. Svensson's memories of eel fishing with his father speak to the intersection of life and science, and add to its heart.

STREET SENSE: This in-depth investigation into the scintillating and mysterious life of eels is super fun reading. I thought I knew a few things and it turns out I knew very few things. I had no idea just how cool eels are.

COVER NERD SAYS: Totally dig everything about this. Color, image, cute face on that little f'er. It's pretty clear the book is non-fiction, but the small subtitle confirms it if there is any question. I like the font, type size, everything about it. The #1 bestseller "sticker" is not obtrusive and I don't have a problem with that like I do with blurbs. In fact, it's more helpful information than a blurb. This gets a solid A in my book.

Quirky storytelling that interweaves the story unusualness of eels with the author’s relationship with his father. It combines history, memoir and science in such a beautiful lyrical way. I couldn’t put it down. Pulling this book apart, you easily have a haunting father/son memoir and an eel history book but with these two narrative threads together, it is simply magical.

"The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World" shouldn't work. It just shouldn't.

Be honest. The title makes you laugh. The concept seems downright weird.

Truthfully? I can't imagine there will be a book that will surprise me more than did Swedish journalist Patrik Svensson's debut that he himself has called "strange and nerdy."

"The Book of Eels" is, indeed, strange and nerdy.

It's also sublime. It's also lyrical. It's also mesmerizing. "The Book of Eels" is hypnotic and immersive, informative and engaging. It's one of 2020's most pleasant surprises, an almost unimaginable weaving together of natural history meets memoir.

"The Book of Eels" is about eels, that's definitely true, but it's also about life and love and how our existence defines us and how our existence can never define us. It has faith in science, yet offers glimpses of being tempted like a mysterious lover by the mystique of faith and the soothing security many find in trusting the unknowing.

Already winner of Sweden's top literary prize, the August Prize, "The Book of Eels" entered my life almost as a dare. A friend who fears eels became aware of the book and expressed a temptation to read it. My curiosity got the best of me and on the eve of its U.S. release by Ecco, a HarperCollins Publishers imprint, I almost timidly requested the opportunity to review it.

Within hours, my request was granted.

"What have I gotten myself into?," I asked myself.

"Why am I reviewing a book about eels?" "Am I insane?"

"No. No, I'm not insane. I'm strange. I'm strange and nerdy," I chuckled to myself.

I started reading, Svensson's poetic lyricism quickly immersing in alternating chapters serving up natural history and Svensson's own childhood memories of nighttime eel fishing with his father under a thin moonlight and amidst the shallow waters not far from their nearby home.

Svensson wrote "The Book of Eels," or gave himself permission to write "The Book of Eels," after his father's death by cancer. It was a death that added mystery to a man who'd always been a bit of a mystery, a mystery not far removed from that of Anguilla anguilla, the European Eel. They are notoriously elusive creatures that have refused to reveal their secrets over the years. It is believed that they are all, quite literally all, born in the sea without borders, Sargasso Sea. They will eventually return - to mate and to die, though to date years upon years of research has been unable to determine why.

They simply do. They all do.

Svensson could never quite figure out why his father so completely loved eel fishing. As near as Svensson could tell, he never learned it from his father or the man he would come to know as father. He simply did and he surrendered himself to it.

Aristotle researched the eel, developing both well-founded and remarkably outrageous theories. A younger Sigmund Freud spent an entire postgraduate research project searching for, quite seriously, the eel's testes. He failed to find them.

Yet, they reproduce.

Danish marine biologist Johannes Schmidt spent 20 years exploring the eels' connection to the Sargasso Sea, while Rachel Carson spent her entire professional life obsessed with the eel.

The eel's truths have remained elusive; it's secrets remain well hidden.

As I began reading "The Book of Eels," it became a mesmerizing story I dared not put down. It's not that so much happens. It doesn't. It's that I became enchanted by Svensson's worlds, both that of the eels and that of a father and a life whose secrets remain ever elusive.

Svensson, who describes himself as not believing in God, is clearly intrigued by the metaphysical world that he brings so vividly to life here. He believes in science, yet he cannot deny that science has been unable to answer the mystery of the eel.

Likewise, despite all that he knows about his life and his father there remains ancestral secrets and unanswered questions that will likely never be answered.

Svensson rather magnificently brings science to life here, yet he does so embracing the cosmic hilarity of eels that can even seemingly transcend their own realities at times. At times, you can practically hear Svensson's chuckling amidst his words. The long history of eel fishing is waning, the number of eels inexplicably waning and their numbers now protected as they are identified as endangered. He embraces this, never having loved eel fishing quite as much as his father did yet writing about it with such warmth and reverence that you simply know it somehow altered his DNA.

There is little denying that "The Book of Eels" will not resonate with everyone, perhaps its cinematic equivalent being a European-tinged Malick effort that patiently, intimately reflects upon life, faith, science, death, and what this all actually means. While not all will engage with its unique, almost fairytale like rhythm, for those who surrender "The Book of Eels" has much to offer and will prove to be one of 2020's most unique, engaging, and inspired literary experiences.

"The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World" was released on May 26th by Ecco.

I generally love a good Pop Science memoir that does a deep dive into some obscure aspect of natural life, but I didn't really connect with this one the way I hoped. I found the historical mysteries around the eel and the very famous names that studied and investigated the origins of the creature very interesting. I was also heartened to learn a ship named Dana played a big role in helping to solve some of the mysteries of the origin of the species. But the author alternated the chapters between his own personal experiences with eels and I struggled to connect with that part of the story. There was a ton of very interesting facts and history in the book so if you're interested in science or the sea then this one might be up your alley.

Thanks to HarperCollins and Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I learned a lot as I didn't know anything about eels.
It's well written and well told book that mixes science with personal experience. The author is a good story teller and it was an engrossing and informative read.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Although Eels to me always seemed icky, this book made it very interesting. Combined with the authors life experiences and scientific facts about eels, and the historical research, I hope more people read this book and learn about eels!

I’ve always thought of eels as icky but I found this book fascinating. I liked how the author juxtaposed his personal experiences growing up with the history of eel discoveries. There’s still so much that is unknown about eels, but time maybe running out.

Pop science memoirs, like Lab Girl and H is for Hawk, are a mixed bag. I often start them and then find myself bored despite being a fan of both genres. This eARC was more like my experience reading Eric Larsen's Devil in the White City, where I felt the HH Holmes storyline was an unnecessary piece -- I was much more interested in the history of the World's Fair than with that of the serial killer who happened to be active at the same time in the same city. They didn't need each other.

Similarly, I had trouble jumping away from the fascinating history of the scientific study of eels into the alternating chapters about the author and his father's eel-trapping. I certainly don't mean to disparage his experiences. Those stories just didn't do as good a job, for me, of illustrating the almost metaphysical mysteries of the eel that Svensson neatly parallels with the greater unknowables of life and relationships. His father's eel-fishing fascination is an inheritance that he clings to despite its limited utility. Perhaps because Svensson drifts away from the hobby as he ages into college, and never really seems to connect with it, it doesn't feel like his passion; yet there's not enough emotional content about the relationship between father and son to explain what exactly the son is trying to get at about his dad and the two of them together, via the grand exposition on eels. I feel like maybe Svensson wasn't quite ready to tell his whole tale, and has just thrown us some simplistic shreds as the basis for making this a memoir, perhaps to capitalize on the trend or on the advice of an editor. The metaphors around our inability to actually witness or control eels (other than wiping them out, as we are in the process of doing with them and so many other genii) might actually be stronger without the oddly impersonal personal touch.

That said, I was enchanted by the confounding history of investigation into eel nature. Not one, but four metamorphoses in their lifetime make adolescent eels apparently sexless (a young Freud worked in Italy trying and ultimately failing to find eel gonads; Svensson suggests that this discouraging experience, paired with sexual rejection by the local hotties, may have soured his interest in the hard sciences and turned him to both psychology and a fixation on sexuality). The birthplace of the eel is known to be the Sargasso Sea -- but no one has ever actually witnessed a sexually mature eel spawning or even present there, beyond a rare audio recording. Eels can live for 150 years or perhaps longer, and may become sexually mature and head back to the Sargasso at any year of life. No one knows what triggers this, or how eels find their way back. They seem to have a prehistoric, almost timeless, sense of purpose and location. Svensson dissects Rachel Carson's anthropomorphization of the eel and deems it the most reasonable way to try to understand the creature, which seems to exist (for now) in some plane beyond current scientific method and reason to fully comprehend. This, he points out, is true of so much of the universe, where humans wander blindly, insensible to why we are destroying our own world, insensible to understanding the people around us.

Found this book to be a lovely memoir as well as a fascinating nature study of eels. Did find the first four chapters a bit dry, but really enjoyed the rest of the book.

The Publisher’s Lunch 2020 Spring/Summer Buzz Books volume contained the first two chapters of this book in their nonfiction section. The first chapter was a succinct natural history of the European eel; the second chapter was a bit of memoir about the author as a young child fishing for eel with his dad at the stream running near his house in Sweden. These two chapters were so well-written and lyrical that I could envision myself reading the entire book. The writing in the sample chapters reminded me of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard and Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield, both of which are works of fiction the ebb and flow of life with respect to the ebb and flow of the river (or creek) at the center of the novel.

The book itself followed the same rhythm as the sample chapters: alternating one chapter of nonfiction with one chapter of memoir. In each chapter of nonfiction, the author brings us closer to solving the mystery of the eel; in each chapter of memoir, the author tells a different anecdote about fishing for eels with his dad at increasingly older ages.

The problem with the book is that, by the fourth nonfiction chapter, we reached the sum of knowledge presented in the first chapter. That was approximately one third of the way through the book. So as the memoir continued to follow a linear progression from childhood to old age, the remaining nonfiction chapters started to wander away from the core of the book. Later nonfiction chapters discussed such things as eel fishermen, the eel in religion and literature, the anthropomorphism of the eel, 21st century efforts to find the eel breeding ground, and the potential extinction of the eel. As the nonfiction narrative continued to wander, I started to count pages.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I felt that the memoir portion was heartfelt and very well paced, with the minor exception of condensing the time the author spent separated from his parents. However, I felt like the author started reaching for nonfiction topics to fill in the gaps between the memoir chapters. As a result, the later nonfiction chapters were of varying quality. But starting with such a lovely natural history set a very high bar for the following nonfiction chapters.

Fascinating book on eels. The wonder of nature never ceases to amaze me. Read this book! I love learning about creatures you never here about. Highly recommended!

Eels are so interesting; how did I not hear before now about how mysterious they are? I had no idea that they migrated or changed forms, or that their numbers are in decline. I am telling all my science-minded friends that they really need to read up about eels because they will be surprised!

I really enjoyed Soul of an Octopus and that is why I wanted to review this book. However, I found this book to focus more on the author's relationships rather than on eels. I wanted to read about the eels, so this book missed the mark for me. It read more like a memoir than a science nonfiction and that was not what I wanted.

Never in my life had I realized how much there is to know about eels, how their story intersects with so many parts of human history (you're going to learn about Aristotle! Freud! The Mayflower!). I found myself wanting to dive deeper into the science, to solve the eel problem myself. But Svensson gives not only that aspect, but also explores his personal connection to eels and writes lovingly about his childhood and, most importantly, his father. His prose is beautiful, and I love how he alternates between clear and rigorous science and emotion and faith. I absolutely loved The Book of Eels.

The best parts were the parts when the author talked about his dad, but I can see how others may not like them if they are just looking for a book about eels and other fish. It’s so interesting just how little we know about ocean creatures.