World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks and Other Astonishments

(Paperback, Main)

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A New York Times Bestseller

'Within two pages, nature writing feels different and fresh and new ... This book demands we find the eyes to see and the heart to love such things once more. It is a very fine book indeed, truly full of wonder' - James Rebanks, author of Pastoral Song

'Unusual and captivating ... a thing of wonder, the book that most took me by surprise this year' - Jini Reddy, author of Wanderland

Aimee Nezhukumatathil has had many homes, but wherever she was - however awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape - she found guidance and perspective in nature.

The axolotl smiles, even in the face of unkindness; the touch-me-not plant shakes off unwanted advances; the narwhal survives its hostile environment. Even in the strange and the unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship.

Warm, lyrical and gorgeously illustrated by Fumi Mini Nakamura, this book ranges through joy and pain, encountering love, motherhood and heritage, racism and the destruction humans can wreak. In all those things, it shows that if you listen carefully, if you open your eyes wide, the world is full of wonders.

Reviews

'Within two pages, nature writing feels different and fresh and new. Nezhukumatathil has written a timely story about love, identity and belonging ... We are losing the language and the ability to see and understand the wondrous things around us. And our lives are impoverished by this process ... This book demands we find the eyes to see and the heart to love such things once more. It is a very fine book indeed, truly full of wonder.' - James Rebanks

'An unusual and captivating memoir ... Nezhukumatathil exudes a rare zest for life, and her inherent love for the natural world shines through. World of Wonders is a thing of wonder, the book that most took me by surprise this year' - Jini Reddy, Wainwright Prize-shortlisted author of Wanderland

'A restless search for identity and belonging finds a warm welcome in nature's details. Nezhukumatathil's writing is like coming home.' - Gillian Burke, biologist and presenter of BBC2's Springwatch and Winterwatch

'Aimee Nezhukumatathil's World of Wonders is the first book to make me feel like a firefly as much as it reminds me I'm still a black boy playing in Central Mississippi woods. The book walks. It sprints. It leaps. Most importantly, the book lingers in a world where power, people, and the literal outside wrestle painfully, beautifully. This book is a world of wonders. This book is about to shake the Earth.' - Kiese Laymon

'Aimee Nezhukumatathil gives us the world in technicolour. Astonishing nature burgeons all around her as she shows what it means to find wonder in a wilfully dull world' - Katherine May

Author Bio

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of four collections of poems, including Oceanic, winner of the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award. Her writing appears in Poetry, The New York Times Magazine and Tin House. She serves as poetry faculty for the Writing Workshops in Greece, and is professor of English and creative writing in the University of Mississippi's MFA program.