Deep Water

‘Wise, compassionate, and urgent. ’ Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland. A Bookseller. Nonfiction Editor’s Choice for March 2024. Plunge into the depths of the unknown in this thrilling work of nonfiction, combining history, science, nature writing, and environmentalism, that invites its reader to explore the deepest recesses of our natural world. The ocean has shaped and sustained life on Earth for billions of years. Its waters contain our past, from the deep history of evolutionary time to exploration and colonialism; our present, as a place of solace and pleasure, and as the highway that underpins the global economy; and — as waters heat and sea levels rise ever higher — our future. Deep Water. is both a hymn to the beauty, mystery and wonder of the ocean, and a reckoning with humankind’s complex relationship to the natural world. It is a book shaped by tidal movements and deep currents, and lit by the presence of other minds and other ways of being. Weaving together science, history, and personal reflection, it explores the way the ocean connects every living being on Earth, the origins of the environmental catastrophe that is overtaking us, and the question of what lies ahead. Immense in scope but also human and intimate, Deep Water. offers new ways of understanding not just our relationship with the planet, but the past — and perhaps most importantly, the future.