The Soul of an Octopus

The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery

?

¡°As far as animals are concerned, my love is bottomless,¡± Sy Montgomery declares in Yankee¡¯s 2021 profile of the best-selling New Hampshire naturalist and writer. That loves comes through again and again in The Soul of an Octopus, as she writes about the many eight-legged individuals she met during a globe-trotting journey to better understand this extraordinary group of species. Whether Montgomery is describing what it¡¯s like to scuba dive or how it feels to ¡°hold hands¡± with a baby octopus, her first-person storytelling puts the reader right there with her. With intelligence, humor, and heart, Montgomery proves that the best nature writing can make us feel the most human.? ¡ªJenn Johnson, Yankee senior managing editor

In pursuit of the wild, solitary, predatory octopus, popular naturalist Sy Montgomery has practiced true immersion journalism. From New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, she has befriended octopuses with strikingly different personalities¡ªgentle Athena, assertive Octavia, curious Kali, and joyful Karma. Each creature shows her cleverness in myriad ways: escaping enclosures like an orangutan; jetting water to bounce balls; and endlessly tricking companions with multiple ¡°sleights of hand¡± to get food.

Scientists have only recently accepted the intelligence of dogs, birds, and chimpanzees but now are watching octopuses solve problems and are trying to decipher the meaning of the animal¡¯s color-changing techniques. With her ¡°joyful passion for these intelligent and fascinating creatures¡± (Library Journal?Editors¡¯ Spring Pick), Montgomery chronicles the growing appreciation of this mollusk as she tells a unique love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching, and profound,?The Soul of an Octopus?reveals what octopuses can teach us about the meeting of two very different minds.

• Publisher ? : ??Washington Square Press
• Publication date ? : ??April 5, 2016
• Print length ? : ??272 pages
• Item Weight ? : ??8.8 ounces
• Dimensions ? : ??5.5 x 0.68 x 8.38 inches

Sy Montgomery is a naturalist, adventurer, and author of more than thirty acclaimed books of nonfiction for adults and children, including?The Hummingbirds¡¯ Gift,?The Hawk¡¯s Way, the National Book Award finalist?The Soul of an Octopus, and most recently,?Of Time and Turtles, which was a?New York Times?bestseller. The recipient of numerous honors, including lifetime achievement awards from the Humane Society and the New England Booksellers Association, she lives in New Hampshire with her husband, writer Howard Mansfield, and a border collie.