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The world is more astonishing, more miraculous, and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In this brilliant and passionately persuasive book, Katherine Rundell takes us on a globe-spanning tour of the world's most awe-inspiring animals currently facing extinction.
Consider the seahorse: couples mate for life and meet each morning for a dance, pirouetting and changing colors before going their separate ways, to dance again the next day. The American wood frog survives winter by allowing itself to freeze solid, its heartbeat slowing until it stops altogether. Come spring, the heart kick-starts itself spontaneously back to life. As for the lemur, it lives in matriarchal troops led by an alpha female (it's not unusual for female ring-tailed lemurs to slap males across the face when they become aggressive). Whenever they are cold or frightened, they group together in what's known as a lemur ball, paws and tails intertwined, to form a furry mass as big as a bicycle wheel.
But each of these extraordinary animals is endangered or holds a sub-species that is endangered. This urgent, inspiring book of essays dedicated to 23 unusual and underappreciated creatures is a clarion call insisting that we look at the world around us with new eyes – to see the magic of the animals we live among, their unknown histories and capabilities, and above all how lucky we are to tread the same ground as such vanishing treasures.
Beautifully illustrated, and full of inimitable wit and intellect, Vanishing Treasures is a chance to be awestruck and lovestruck, to reckon with the beauty of the world, its fragility, and its strangeness.
Introduction
The Wombat
The Greenland Shark
The Raccoon
The Giraffe
The Swift
The Lemur
The Hermit Crab
The Seal
The Bear
The Narwhal
The Crow
The Hare
The Wolf
The Hedgehog
The Elephant
The Seahorse
The Pangolin
The Stork
The Spider
The Bat
The Tuna
The Golden Mole
The Human
Author's Note
About This Book
Acknowledgments
Further Reading
About the Author
Katherine Rundell is a Fellow of St. Catherine's College, Oxford. She is the author of Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, which won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, and the recipient of the British Book Award for Book of the Year and Author of the Year. Her multi-award-winning novels for children have been translated into more than forty languages and have sold over two million copies worldwide. She has written for, among others, the New Yorker, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and The London Review of Books.
– Named a Best Book of Fall by the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune & more
"[Vanishing Treasures] extolls the marvellous strangeness of, among other species, hedgehogs, giraffes, and swifts [...] Rundell has a great deal of infectious fun with these creatures, and with the line separating fact from fable."
– The New Yorker
"Extraordinary [...] For anyone whose capacity for wonder could use a jumpstart, Rundell's essays are essential reading [...] Vanishing Treasures makes readers see, really see, some of the miraculous creatures we still share this fragile world with."
– Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air
"Already beloved for her children's books, Rundell writes here for adults who still hold a child's love for animals. This celebration of seahorses, lemurs, and others doubles as a wake-up call: look around and protect what you love."
– Boston Globe
"The best writer you're not reading (yet) [...] Vanishing Treasures is composed of nearly two dozen hilarious, strange, totally true essays about the natural world that summon real wonder."
– Chicago Tribune
"[Vanishing Treasures] consists of loving, playful essays about animals that are endangered or hold a subspecies that is endangered: sea horses, lemurs, golden moles and more. It's pervaded with both wonder and worry, as indeed is much of [Rundell's] work."
– Sarah Lyall, The New York Times
"An enthralling compendium of remarkable creatures, an urgent appeal for conservation and a joyful reminder that the natural world is 'so startling that our capacity for wonder, huge as it is, can barely skim the edges of the truth [...] ' Every chapter contains sparkling nuggets that range from eye-opening to jaw-dropping to thought-provoking [...] As befits a book packed with marvels, this is a marvelous book, one to enjoy and learn from."
– Minnesota Star-Tribune
"Gorgeous. Each fact captured in these declarative sentences sits like some blown-glass Chihuly sequitur pushing us ever-further into the field of what is possible on this planet [...] [Vanishing Treasures] is an epic poem, as it turns out, replete with shining islands, towering mountains, small glittering gods and us – the monsters."
– Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Delightful [...] [Rundell] is a sort of literary David Attenborough [...] Vanishing Treasures is filled not just with intriguing facts but also beautiful and witty turns of phrases."
– New York Post
"[Rundell is] already back with a new book of fantastical beasts – except these are real. Whether drawing connections between wombats and Italian painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti or Shakespeare and Greenland sharks, she fascinates."
– Orange County Register
"A rare and magical book. I didn't want it to end."
– Bill Bryson, bestselling author of The Body and A Walk in the Woods
"Whether she is writing about a jumping spider, a hedgehog, or the curious, pine-cone-like mammals known as a pangolin, Katherine Rundell stuns us with wonders. Each of her essays is a polished gem – and each will leave you newly smitten with love for life."
– Sy Montgomery, New York Times bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus
"A compendium of the wonders of the scuttling, flapping, galloping, swimming, and hopping jewels of the world. This charming menagerie features creatures both familiar and strange, whose futures we have imperiled, and Rundell shares their stories with ceaseless curiosity. A book brimming with astonishments and hope."
– Sabrina Imbler, author of How Far the Light Reaches
"To see the world through Rundell's eyes is to see it anew. She writes with such wit, wonder, and effervescence, that you can't help but marvel at every element living creatures on this planet have to offer."
– Katy Hessel, New York Times bestselling author of The Story of Art Without Men
"This world, even as we degrade it, remains almost unimaginably beautiful and interesting, as this remarkable bestiary makes clear. Here are a bunch of very very good reasons to actually try and hold on to as much of the Pleistocene as we can."
– Bill McKibben, author The End of Nature
"A wondrous ode to nature's astonishing beauty – and an elegy for all the life we are in the midst of destroying."
– Amia Srinivasan, author of The Right to Sex
"Exquisite and timely."
– Maggie O'Farrell, author of The Marriage Portrait
"A total miracle."
– Max Porter, author of Shy
"A loving and lovely book."
– Sarah Moss, author of Ghost Wall
"Rundell's book is, on the surface, about animals – but, in reality, it is a pretext for us to learn about ourselves and our relationship with nature. Written in the enchanted, storytelling tone of medieval bestiaries, Vanishing Treasures captures the joy and wonder of wildlife and weaves it into the fabric of human history. A delight to read."
– Joanna Bagniewska, author of The Modern Bestiary
"A witty, intoxicating paean to Earth's wondrous creatures [...] shot through with Rundell's characteristic wit and swagger."
– The Guardian
"[A] dazzling collection of essays about some of the world's most wondrous creatures. From the iridescence of the golden mole to parasites in the eye of the Greenland shark, Rundell details the natural world in exquisite prose [...] Rundell's gift for language, wit and historical observation combine here to create a rare and beautiful book."
– The Observer
"There is a constant joy in the book [...] A sense throughout of delight and wonder, and a reminder that these emotions also matter – may even save us. This is the point."
– New Statesman
"Rundell celebrates and mourns the marvelous variety of creatures facing disappearance right now: everyone from the lemur to the sea horse and so many more are brought vividly to life in a desperate hope we might act before it's too late."
– Parade.com
"A must-read for any animal lover. And with its beautiful illustrations, this book also makes for a lovely gift."
– Book Riot
"Brisk, eye-opening, thoroughly entertaining [...] Young and old will savor Rundell's infectious enthusiasm for these remarkable and infinitely varied creatures. A clarion call for preservation by way of a delightful bestiary."
– Kirkus Reviews (starred)
"Rundell's latest is a gem of a book [...] Rundell's wit fascinates and cuts [...] This magical collection of very real animals will charm and inspire readers."
– Booklist (starred)
"A poignant survey of animal species whose survival is threatened by humans [...] Rundell approaches her subjects with reverence, as when she writes that blind, iridescent golden moles 'burrow and breed and hunt, live and die under the African sun, unaware of their beauty, unknowingly glowing.' Animal lovers will cherish this."
– Publishers Weekly
"[Rundell] illuminates this collection of essays with fable, legend, myth, and truth stranger than fiction [...] Although it is a sobering glimpse at the destruction humanity has wrought on other living things, Vanishing Treasures is ultimately an uplifting and inspiring exploration of the wonder left in the world and how humanity can fit within it, and add to its extraordinary quality."
– Shelf Awareness
