Awards

• Commended for Kirkus Prize (Nonfiction) 2022
• Short-listed for Royal Society Prize for Science Books 2023
• Winner of Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence (Nonfiction) 2023

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “thrilling” (The New York Times), “dazzling” (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world that will fill you with wonder and forever alter your perspective, by Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Ed Yong “One of this year’s finest works of narrative nonfiction.”—Oprah Daily ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Time, People, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Slate, Reader’s Digest, Chicago Public Library, Outside, Publishers Weekly, BookPage ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Oprah Daily, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Economist, Smithsonian Magazine, Prospect (UK), Globe & Mail, Esquire, Mental Floss, Marginalian, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth’s magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and even humans who wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile’s scaly face is as sensitive as a lover’s fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries that remain unsolved. Funny, rigorous, and suffused with the joy of discovery, An Immense World takes us on what Marcel Proust called “the only true voyage . . . not to visit strange lands, but to possess other eyes.” WINNER OF THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON AWARD

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Reviews

I don't know how to put into words the awe I felt while reading this book-for the incredible sensory diversity of our planet, and for Ed Yong's talents. -Mary Roach, author of Stiff There is almost no writer I admire as much as I do Ed Yong. He's an extraordinary reporter and a writer of such grace that his work seems effortless. An Immense World is a journal of discovery and animal magic, and a sensory exploration that is a joy to read. -Susan Orlean, author of On Animals What would we do without Ed Yong? This book feels like a tremendous burst of oxygen, animating everything around us with life and color and texture and wonder at precisely the moment we all need it. -Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Equal parts science and poetry: Yong guides us through the magic of the animal kingdom in ways that have unlocked something inside of me I didn't know was there. I'll never look at our planet the same way again. -Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed Though we can't sense magnetic or electrical fields and have noses too blunt to see the world, this book gives us the next best thing: appreciation for those who can. Ed Yong expands our world as he lets us see into others'. -Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside of a Dog A cornucopia of wonders-a fascinating reminder that most of what happens among life forms on Earth is beyond our ken. -David Quammen, author of The Tangled Tree Utterly surprising, like stepping into Alice in Wonderland . . . the perfect mixture of revelation, curiosity, science, beautiful prose, and buckets full of wonders. -Andrea Wulf, author of The Invention of Nature A whirlwind tour of animal perceptual abilities, this magnificent book challenges your imagination and fills you with wonder about the living world. -Frans de Waal, author of Different A powerful and immersive deep dive into the perceptual lives of other organisms-and a persuasive case for more empathy and understanding of the complexity, sophistication, and sheer riotous joy of the nonhuman world-it's an instant classic. -Jeff VanderMeer, author of Authority An Immense World is an expansive, constantly revelatory exploration of the biosphere's sensorium, from the rigidly pheromonic behavioral programming of ants to the constant subsonic conversations of elephants. Ed Yong is my favorite contemporary science writer. -William Gibson, author of Agency

There is almost no writer I admire as much as I do Ed Yong. He's an extraordinary reporter and a writer of such grace that his work seems effortless, even when he digs into deep science. An Immense World is a journal of discovery and animal magic, a sensory exploration that is a joy to read. -Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief and On Animals Ed Yong! What strange sensory power does this man have that he's able to roam the vast universe of animal science, homing in on the most fascinating discoveries? Every page finds the reader mouthing quiet whoas, as the world she thought she knew opens out into a hundred others, improbable, strange, and fabulous. I don't know how to put into words the awe I felt while reading this book-for the incredible sensory diversity of our planet, and for Ed Yong's talents. -Mary Roach, author of Fuzz and Stiff Ed Yong has the collector's keen eye for the unusual, crossed with the journalist's nose for how to tell a beguilingly good story. Which is to say, he is the perfect person to take this deep dive into the astonishing parallel universes around us inhabited by other animals. Chasing an understanding of their sensory worlds, Yong shares a gaze with a jumping spider, is oripulated by a manatee, and takes a punch from a mantis shrimp. Though we have noses too blunt to see the world, our eyes are tuned to only a fraction of light, and we can't sense magnetic or electrical fields, An Immense World gives us the next best thing: appreciation for those who can. Yong expands our world as he lets us see into others'. -Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know A cornucopia of wonders about the transcendent modalities by which other animals perceive: snakes with their stereo-olfactory tongues, killer flies with their high-speed vision, knifefishes that electrolocate their prey, and so much more . . . It's all a fascinating reminder of the humbling truth that most of what happens among life forms on Earth is beyond our ken. -David Quammen, author of The Tangled Tree

Ed Yong! What strange sensory power does this man have that he's able to roam the vast universe of animal science, homing in on the most fascinating discoveries? Every page finds the reader mouthing quiet whoas, as the world she thought she knew opens out into a hundred others, improbable, strange, and fabulous. I don't know how to put into words the awe I felt while reading this book-for the incredible sensory diversity of our planet, and for Ed Yong's talents. -Mary Roach, author of Fuzz and Stiff Ed Yong has the collector's keen eye for the unusual, crossed with the journalist's nose for how to tell a beguilingly good story. Which is to say, he is the perfect person to take this deep dive into the astonishing parallel universes around us inhabited by other animals. Chasing an understanding of their sensory worlds, Yong shares a gaze with a jumping spider, is oripulated by a manatee, and takes a punch from a mantis shrimp. Though we have noses too blunt to see the world, our eyes are tuned to only a fraction of light, and we can't sense magnetic or electrical fields, An Immense World gives us the next best thing: appreciation for those who can. Yong expands our world as he lets us see into others'. -Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know A cornucopia of wonders about the transcendent modalities by which other animals perceive: snakes with their stereo-olfactory tongues, killer flies with their high-speed vision, knifefishes that electrolocate their prey, and so much more . . . It's all a fascinating reminder of the humbling truth that most of what happens among life forms on Earth is beyond our ken. -David Quammen, author of The Tangled Tree

Author Information

Ed Yong is a Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer on the staff of The Atlantic, where he also won the George Polk Award for science reporting, among other honors. He has also been named a Guggenheim Fellow for science writing. His first book, I Contain Multitudes, was a New York Times bestseller and won numerous awards. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic, Wired, The New York Times, Scientific American, and more. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Liz Neeley, and their corgi, Typo.

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