‘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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‘Bradley vividly conveys the awe-inspiring scale of the deep seas, both in space and time. Celebrating our blue planet and highlighting the perils it faces as a result of our own greed and ignorance.’

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‘Deep Water is written with panache and argued with compelling clarity. The result is a provocative, engrossing read.’

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‘Bradley depicts the awe-inspiring wonder of the world’s largest ecosystem, making our disregard for its inhabitants painful to read. Despite this, Bradley highlights the oceans’ adaptability, resilience, and our capacity for change.’

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‘This is a book that offers much, and should find a space in every library, on every home bookshelf. I read with eyes open wide, I was fascinated and felt connected, startled, and in shock, but also energised and hopeful. This is a book that feels as though it is for everyone, it’s inclusive and welcoming even as it plunges deeply into the environmental emergency we have created.’

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‘Bradley weaves natural history, climate studies, and trivia into an elegant whole that drives home the dire threat global warming poses to the ocean, all delivered in plaintive prose. It’s a galvanising call to action.’

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‘A novelist, activist, and naturalist writes a paean to the sea … A satisfying tribute to the wonders of the ocean and the myriad dangers it faces.’

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‘[A] mesmerising work of nonfiction that will inspire awe and make you weep. It’s a rare work of nonfiction that can make the reader weep with wonder then grief from one sentence to the next … [P]aints a portrait of a world not just teeming with life, but whose cycles have a profound impact on our terrestrial existence … This whole book is a subtle but mesmerising call to action; a reminder of just how extraordinary this planet’s oceans are, and a plea to every individual to keep fighting to save what’s left of them.’

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‘Like all good nature writing, Deep Water invokes the beauty of the nonhuman world in terms both down-to-earth and mythopoetic … Dazzling.’

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‘The research is thorough, the content fascinating, the writing is clear and elegant; and Bradley’s concluding reflections in each section nicely draw the reader to reflect on the wider contemporary issues.’

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Praise for Ghost Species:

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Praise for Clade: