Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love and the Hidden Order of Life

This genre-defying journey into the science of classification weaves memoir and history in shimmering prose * Guardian * I want to live at this book's address: the intersection of history and biology and wonder and failure and sheer human stubbornness. What a sumptuous, surprising, dark delight -- Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House Here is a book that hops nimbly between biography and autobiography, gritty science and lovelorn self-help. And its final, happy leap into the unknown is just astonishing * Prospect Magazine * Her book took me to strange depths I never imagined, and I was smitten * New York Times Book Review * A story told with an open heart, every page of it animated by verve, nuance, and full-throated curiosity -- Leslie Jamison, author of Make It Scream, Make It Burn This book will capture your heart, seize your imagination, smash your preconceptions, and rock your world -- Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus I didn't want to read another biography of a dead, white man - fortunately, that's not what this is. Instead, Miller asks an age-old question: how do you go on? She finds an answer both original and prescient * TLS * Strangely compelling * The Times * Moves gracefully between reporting and meditation, big questions and small moments. A magical hybrid of science, portraiture, and memoir-and a delight to read -- Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book This book is perfect, just perfect. It's both lyrical and learned, personal and political, small and huge, quirky and profound -- Mary Roach, author of Stiff A tale so seductive that I read her book in one sitting * The Wall Street Journal * Stunning and brilliant and completely un-sum-up-able... I love this book so much! -- John Green, author of Turtles All the Way Down Wholly unique and a true delight * Refinery29 * A wild ride... that upends our idea of what fish (and we) are in the grand scheme of things * Slate * A touching blend of biography, science, philosophy and self-reflection. Like its provocative title, it's full of surprises -- Jonathan Balcombe, New York Times bestselling author of What a Fish Knows Remarkable... Lulu Miller draws a heartening lesson-that chaos, which comes for us all, can be defeated by sheer human stubbornness * Los Angeles Times * Engrossing... thought-provoking... Lulu Miller does the job with style and intelligence -- Chicago Review of Books Ingenious... A quirky wonder of a book * Kirkus Reviews * Quirky, fascinating * Daily Mail * The excitement and curiosity in which she sees and investigates the world is contagious * Economist Podcast * Lulu Miller's Why Fish Don't Exist takes someone even less redeemable-the early 20th-century scientist and eugenicist David Starr Jordan-and carries us into the outer reaches of knowledge itself * Prospect Magazine Best Books 2024 * A bold and original blend of memoir and science, it combines the exhilaration of discovery with the unexpected and revelatory -- Elizabeth Buchan