Finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction * New York
Times Bestseller * A Huffington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of the
Year * One of the Best Books of the Month on Goodreads * Library
Journal Best Sci-Tech Book of the Year * An American Library
Association Notable Book of the Year
"Sy Montgomery's The Soul of an Octopus does for the creature what
Helen Macdonald's H Is for Hawk did for raptors." --New Statesman,
UK
"One of the best science books of the year." --Science Friday, NPR
Another New York Times bestseller from the author of The Good Good
Pig, this "fascinating...touching...informative...entertaining" (The
Daily Beast) book explores the emotional and physical world of the
octopus--a surprisingly complex, intelligent, and spirited creature--and
the remarkable connections it makes with humans.
In pursuit of the wild, solitary, predatory octopus, popular naturalist
Sy Montgomery has practiced true immersion journalism. From New England
aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico,
she has befriended octopuses with strikingly different
personalities--gentle Athena, assertive Octavia, curious Kali, and
joyful Karma. Each creature shows her cleverness in myriad ways:
escaping enclosures like an orangutan; jetting water to bounce balls;
and endlessly tricking companions with multiple "sleights of hand" to
get food.
Scientists have only recently accepted the intelligence of dogs, birds,
and chimpanzees but now are watching octopuses solve problems and are
trying to decipher the meaning of the animal's color-changing
techniques. With her "joyful passion for these intelligent and
fascinating creatures" (Library Journal Editors' Spring Pick),
Montgomery chronicles the growing appreciation of this mollusk as she
tells a unique love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching, and
profound, The Soul of an Octopus reveals what octopuses can teach us
about the meeting of two very different minds.
