How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures (Compact Disc)
Staff Reviews
Despite having little to no interest in sea creatures, I was immediately drawn in and completely engrossed by this debut collection that blends scientific journalism and personal essays. Imbler is seriously knowledgeable of their wide variety of aquatic subjects, and their enthusiasm and love for these ocean dwellers leaps off the page as they connect the creatures to their own life in stunning and unexpected ways. Imbler’s meditations on queerness, family, identity, and community, both in the sea and out of it, are beautifully written and moved me deeply.
— AmyDecember 2022 Indie Next List
“The only thing more impressive than Imbler’s marine knowledge is their knowledge of themselves. Searching the ocean for new ways of being, they describe personal, familial, and communal trauma with astonishing honesty and lyricism.”
— Amy Woolsey, Bards Alley, Vienna, VA
Description
"A miraculous, transcendental book. Sabrina Imbler is a generational talent, and this book is a gift to us all." -- ED YONG, New York Times Bestselling author of I Contain Multitudes A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments. Each essay in their debut collection profiles one such creature: the mother octopus who starves herself while watching over her eggs, the Chinese sturgeon whose migration route has been decimated by pollution and dams, the bizarre Bobbitt worm (named after Lorena), and other uncanny creatures lurking in the deep ocean, far below where the light reaches. Imbler discovers that some of the most radical models of family, community, and care can be found in the sea, from gelatinous chains that are both individual organisms and colonies of clones to deep-sea crabs that have no need for the sun, nourished instead by the chemicals and heat throbbing from the core of the Earth. Exploring themes of adaptation, survival, sexuality, and care, and weaving the wonders of marine biology with stories of their own family, relationships, and coming of age, How Far the Light Reaches is a book that invites us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live.