Beastly

Keggie Carew

From Shelf: Natural History

The Costa-winning author of Dadland invites us to reconnect with our wild world and see how we can still change our impact on the environment

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATIONA BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES, WATERSTONES AND BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE A NEX BIG IDEA CLUB MUST READIn a Polish forest a young woman befriends a boar. An Englishman sets up home with two beavers in Saskatchewan. A zoologist watches a fish make a conscious decision. Darwin finds the evidence for evolution in the backyards of pigeon fanciers. The entire population of Croatia anxiously awaits the arrival of a single stork. Animals have shaped our lives, our land, our civilisation, and they will shape our future. Yet as our impact on the world and the animals we share it with increases, there has never been a greater urgency to understand this foundational relationship. Beastly is the 40,000-year story of animals and humans as it has never been captured before, seen eye-to-eye and claw-to-hand through those humans who have stepped into the myriad worlds of our animal relatives. Our relationship with animals has always been paradoxical, but the greatest paradox may yet be this: diversity of life can heal ecosystems. Animals - if given the chance - could save us.