Overview

‘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 that combines science, history, and nature writing to explore the deepest recesses of the natural world. Oceans created, shaped, and sustain not just human life, but all life on Earth, and perhaps beyond it. They are our history — from evolution to exploration and colonialism; our present — from beach holidays to transporting food and goods; and, as rising sea levels and warming water reshape coastlines and the climate, our future. Deep Water is a reckoning with humankind’s complex relationship with the ocean, a book shaped by tidal movements and vast currents, and lit by the presence of other minds and other ways of being. It speaks directly and uncompromisingly of the urgency of the environmental catastrophe that is overtaking us, but is also suffused with the glories of the ocean, and alert to the extraordinary efforts of the scientists and researchers whose work helps us understand its secrets. Immense in scope but also profoundly personal, it offers vital new ways of understanding humanity’s place on our planet, and shows that the oceans might yet save us all.

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9781914484605

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Reviews

‘What a wondrous book. In vivid, urgent prose, James Bradley takes us on a journey through oceanic worlds. Epic in scope and charged with a compulsive capitalist critique, Deep Water balances the grief of environmental catastrophe with a profound sense of awe and possibility. There is no false hope here. But there is hope.’ -- Billy Griffiths, author of <i>Deep Time Dreaming: uncovering ancient Australia</i> Praise for Ghost Species: ‘Ghost Species is a perceptive and timely tale about what it really means to take care of the Earth … spelling out ... where ordinary folk will fit in the future that Elon Musk and Bill Gates built.’ -- Simon Ings * The Times * Praise for Ghost Species: ‘Ghost Species is absorbing, sensitively written and full of heart. A landmark novel in today’s environmentally ravaged world.’ -- Anne Charnock, author of the Arthur C. Clarke 2018 Novel Award-winning <i>Dreams Before the Start of Time</i> Praise for Clade: ‘Moving and nuanced characterisations distinguish this subtle look at an Earth suffering the consequences of climate collapse.’ -- <i>Publishers Weekly</i>, starred review Praise for Clade: ‘A stunningly beautiful novel, characterised as much by lyricism as pointed critique of how humans are stewarding the planet.’ * Chicago Review of Books *

‘Deep Water is a major achievement; a vast fathoming of the pasts, presents, and futures of the world’s oceans and seas. Bradley’s skills both as novelist and essayist converge here to create this wise, compassionate, and urgent book, characterised throughout by a clarity of prose and a bracing moral gaze that searches water, self, and reader.’ -- Robert Macfarlane, author of <i>Underland</i> ‘What a wondrous book. In vivid, urgent prose, James Bradley takes us on a journey through oceanic worlds. Epic in scope and charged with a compulsive capitalist critique, Deep Water balances the grief of environmental catastrophe with a profound sense of awe and possibility. There is no false hope here. But there is hope.’ -- Billy Griffiths, author of <i>Deep Time Dreaming: uncovering ancient Australia</i> ‘A sublime exploration of one of Earth’s most immense, powerful, and obscure entities, awash with humanity and wisdom. Deep Water will transform how you think about the ocean.’ -- Richard Fisher, author of <i>The Long View</i> ‘A sublime work, quite literally: vast, beautiful, sometimes frightening. Bradley is a talented scholar, surveying widely in various disciplines. But he keeps his novelist’s eyes for poignant intimacy: moments of love and grief, curiosity and rage. If you care about our oceans, submerge yourself in Deep Water.’ -- Damon Young, author of <i>The Art of Reading</i> ‘No part of the Earth system is more vital to the human past and future than the world ocean, and few indeed are better qualified to tell its stories than James Bradley. A love letter and a warning, Deep Water is a work of rare scholarship, wide range, and fierce urgency.’ -- Caspar Henderson, author of <i>The Book of Barely Imagined Beings</i> ‘Teeming with mysteries, wonders, and heartbreaking facts, this beautiful, lucid hymn to the sea is a reminder of what we still have, what we stand to lose, and why we must never stop fighting to save our home.’ -- Tim Winton, author of <i>Cloudstreet</i> Praise for Ghost Species: ‘Ghost Species is a perceptive and timely tale about what it really means to take care of the Earth … spelling out ... where ordinary folk will fit in the future that Elon Musk and Bill Gates built.’ -- Simon Ings * The Times * Praise for Ghost Species: ‘Ghost Species is absorbing, sensitively written, and full of heart. A landmark novel in today’s environmentally ravaged world.’ -- Anne Charnock, author of the Arthur C. Clarke 2018 Novel Award-winning <i>Dreams Before the Start of Time</i> Praise for Clade: ‘Moving and nuanced characterisations distinguish this subtle look at an Earth suffering the consequences of climate collapse.’ -- <i>Publishers Weekly</i>, starred review Praise for Clade: ‘A stunningly beautiful novel, characterised as much by lyricism as pointed critique of how humans are stewarding the planet.’ * Chicago Review of Books *

Praise for Ghost Species: ‘Ghost Species is a perceptive and timely tale about what it really means to take care of the Earth … spelling out ... where ordinary folk will fit in the future that Elon Musk and Bill Gates built.’ -- Simon Ings * The Times * Praise for Ghost Species: ‘Ghost Species is absorbing, sensitively written and full of heart. A landmark novel in today’s environmentally ravaged world.’ -- Anne Charnock, author of the Arthur C. Clarke 2018 Novel Award-winning <i>Dreams Before the Start of Time</i> Praise for Clade: ‘Moving and nuanced characterisations distinguish this subtle look at an Earth suffering the consequences of climate collapse.’ -- <i>Publishers Weekly</i>, starred review Praise for Clade: ‘A stunningly beautiful novel, characterised as much by lyricism as pointed critique of how humans are stewarding the planet.’ * Chicago Review of Books *

Author Information

James Bradley is a writer and critic. His books include the novels Wrack, The Deep Field, The Resurrectionist, Clade, and Ghost Species; a book of poetry, Paper Nautilus; and The Penguin Book of the Ocean. Alongside his books, James has an established career as an essayist and reviewer, whose work has appeared in publications including The Guardian, The Monthly, Sydney Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, Meanjin, and Griffith Review. His fiction has won or been shortlisted for a wide range of Australian and international literary awards, and his nonfiction has been shortlisted twice for the Bragg Prize for Science Writing and nominated for a Walkley Award. In 2012, he won the Pascall Award for Australia’s Critic of the Year. He is currently an Honorary Associate at the Sydney Environment Centre at the University of Sydney.

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