Overview

A landmark examination of the fraught relationship between humans and animals, taking the reader from Genesis to climate change. Beginning with the very origins of life on Earth, Woolfson considers prehistoric human-animal interaction and traces the millennia-long evolution of conceptions of the soul and conscience in relation to the animal kingdom, and the consequences of our belief in human superiority. She explores our representation of animals in art, our consumption of them for food, our experiments on them for science, and our willingness to slaughter them for sport and fashion, as well as examining concepts of love and ownership. Drawing on philosophy and theology, art and history, as well as her own experience of living with animals and coming to know, love, and respect them as individuals, Woolfson examines some of the most complex ethical issues surrounding our treatment of animals and argues passionately and persuasively for a more humble, more humane, relationship with the creatures who share our world.

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9781639362769

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Reviews

Nature writing at its best. -- The Sunday Times (London) This book is so entertaining and intelligent. -- The Spectator We live in a time in which our disrespect for nature is coming back to bite us. Timely and wide-ranging, Esther Woolfson's book offers sensitive reflections on how we relate to the animals around us as well as the animal within. --Frans de Waal, New York Times bestselling author of Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? Woolfson is an elegant, precise writer, and this transcendent memoir conveys exquisitely the vibrant world she inhabits. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred) Woolfson examines humanity's relationship with animals in this bracing investigation....With gorgeous writing and well-considered insight, this is a must for nature-minded readers. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) Learned, compassionate, and disconcerting, this is a major contribution to the literature on animal welfare. -- Kirkus Reviews, (starred review) This work has the capacity to forever change the thinking about humans' relationship to animals and to lead to constructive ways of dealing with issues for the betterment of both. It belongs on the shelves of all academic and large public libraries. -- Library Journal (starred review) This expansive book traces humanity's relationship with other species through scientific studies, philosophical, literary, religious, and historical writings, and personal anecdotes -- Booklist Asserting that Earth's survival is in jeopardy, Between Light and Storm is passionate and powerful in arguing that people's attitudes and behaviors toward the Earth need to change in significant ways. -- Forward Reviews Praise for Esther Woolfson:

When turning the pages of Wolfson's spellbinding books, you can't help but wonder what creatures may have been peering over her shoulder as she wrote. Intimacy feeds into her new examination of our relationship with the wilder world. Read and be caught. -- The New Statesman A powerful, poignant, and urgently important reflection on our relations with the non-human world. Immaculately researched and compulsively readable. --Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast Always tolerant and respectful, Woolfson offers both philosophical and scientific arguments for the conservation of all city life. -- Booklist Elegiac, haunting and piercingly intelligent, Esther Woolfson's exploration of our relationship with other species is sometimes painful to read but her articulacy and lightness of touch, and her own beautifully observed experiences, are a joy. A profoundly moving and important book. --Isabella Tree, author of Wilding Exquisitely written. Stands as a serious corrective to the notion that only exotic animals are worthy of attention. -- The Observer (London) Nature writing at its best. -- The Sunday Times (London) This book is so entertaining and intelligent. -- The Spectator Through richly crafted prose she depicts the city and its inhabitants, both human and non-human, as they manage their lives and come to grips with natural elements and each other. A joy to read, and she is both passionate and poetic when she turns her attention to the human species. -- Publishers Weekly We live in a time in which our disrespect for nature is coming back to bite us. Timely and wide-ranging, Esther Woolfson's book offers sensitive reflections on how we relate to the animals around us as well as the animal within. --Frans de Waal, New York Times bestselling author of Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? Woolfson is an elegant, precise writer, and this transcendent memoir conveys exquisitely the vibrant world she inhabits. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred) Woolfson possesses a sense of humour and a gift for fine writing. -- The Daily Mail I know of no better introduction to the study of human-animal relations. --Boria Sax, author of Avian Illuminations: A Cultural History of Birds Praise for Esther Woolfson: Between Light and Storm brings together a wealth of literature about humans and other animals. At every turn, Woolfson has an astute remark, whether from Tolstoy or J. D. Salinger. -- The Financial Times

Always tolerant and respectful, Woolfson offers both philosophical and scientific arguments for the conservation of all city life. -- Booklist Nature writing at its best. -- The Sunday Times (London) This book is so entertaining and intelligent. -- The Spectator Through richly crafted prose she depicts the city and its inhabitants, both human and non-human, as they manage their lives and come to grips with natural elements and each other. A joy to read, and she is both passionate and poetic when she turns her attention to the human species. -- Publishers Weekly We live in a time in which our disrespect for nature is coming back to bite us. Timely and wide-ranging, Esther Woolfson's book offers sensitive reflections on how we relate to the animals around us as well as the animal within. --Frans de Waal, New York Times bestselling author of Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? Woolfson is an elegant, precise writer, and this transcendent memoir conveys exquisitely the vibrant world she inhabits. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred) Woolfson possesses a sense of humour and a gift for fine writing. -- The Daily Mail Learned, compassionate, and disconcerting, this is a major contribution to the literature on animal welfare. -- Kirkus Reviews, starred Praise for Esther Woolfson: Between Light and Storm brings together a wealth of literature about humans and other animals. At every turn, Woolfson has an astute remark, whether from Tolstoy or J. D. Salinger. -- The Financial Times

Author Information

Esther Woolfson is the author of Corvus: A Life With Birds and Field Notes From a Hidden City: An Urban Nature Diary, which was short listed for the Wainwright Prize and the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. She has been an Artist in Residence at the Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability and is an Honorary Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Aberdeen University.

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