Synopses & Reviews
"Breathtakingly learned and lyrical." — National Geographic Traveler
"Whitty mines the worlds miraculous underwater ecosystems to uncover the secrets — and life-sustaining powers — of the deep . . . Relevant — and heartbreaking." — More
At the center of Deep Blue Home is Julia Whittys penetrating exploration of the World Ocean as a single body of water connected by a vast and powerful three-dimensional current circling the globe. This undivided body of water profoundly controls and is controlled by Earths climate; its fate determines our own.
Whittys career — first in science, later as a documentary filmmaker, and always as a writer and diver — has given her sustained access to the scientists dedicated to the study of an astonishing range of ocean life, from the physiology of “extremophile” life forms to the strategies of nesting seabirds to the ecology of “whale falls,” or what happens in the afterlife of a behemoth. No stranger to extreme places, Whitty travels the oceanside and underwater world from the Sea of Cortez to Newfoundland to the Galápagos. Her book provides extraordinary armchair entrée to gripping adventure, cutting-edge science, and an intimate understanding of our deep blue home.
“[Whitty] writes with humor, reverence, true curiosity and an unfettered imagination.” — Los Angeles Times
Orion Book Award Finalist * Northern California Book Award Finalist
Julia Whittys first book, The Fragile Edge, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal Award, the PEN USA Award, and the Kiriyama Prize. Her cover articles have appeared in Harpers Magazine and Mother Jones, where she is the environmental correspondent. She blogs at Blue Marble and Deep Blue Home.
Review
'The Fragile Edge' is at once a natural history, a call to action, a love song, and a prayer.
O, The Oprah Magazine
For those of us who can't visit the South Pacific
writer and producer Whitty gives us the next best thing.
Library Journal
This is a moving and illuminating love story about one woman and the fathomless deep.
Elle
"This important book makes clear the absolute urgency of saving the coral reefs of the world." actor/activist Ted Danson
Whitty is emerging as one of the must-read voices about the wet three-quarters of the planet." -- Bill McKibben
"Whitty's prose is supple and scientifically informed (a rare and graceful mix) ... her intimacies with the ocean's curiosities captivate." The New York Times
"Extraordinarily absorbing." - Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Review
“A lovely, soft-spoken book about the ‘joy, inspiration, wonder, laughter, ideas that come from relating to Earths ‘nonhuman world.”
—Kirkus Review
“Here is a writer of power and persuasion; one worthy of the Rachel Carson mantle. Whitty allows us to peer into the ecological web of the mysterious World Ocean, sharing her passion for the continuation of the ocean's life-essential fabric.”
—Linda Lear, author of Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature
“Rhythmic, poetic, transporting, and illuminating, this is the sacred memoir of a woman among islands of miracles, yearning with all her heart to be right where she is.”
—Carl Safina, author of Song for the Blue Ocean, The View From Lazy Point
“An illuminating exploration of the swirling currents connecting oceans, science, people, and history, bearing the reader on a unique voyage of discovery above and below the waves.”
—Daniel Bennett, President of The Explorers Club
Synopsis
A master diver and filmmaker on the mystery, fragilityand heart-stopping adventureof underwater life in the South Pacific
Julia Whitty paints a mesmerizing, scientifically rich portrait of teeming coral reefs in the Tuamotu Archipelago, the Society Islands, and off the tiny nation of Tuvalu. The Fragile Edge takes us literally beneath the surface of the usual travel narrative -- to the underwater equivalent of an African big-game safari, where hammerhead sharks rule a cascading chain of extraordinary underwater from eagle rays to reef sharks, while the sounds of courting humpback whales reverberate throughout the deep.
Equally inspiring for armchair or expert divers, The Fragile Edge illuminates Eastern-influenced diving techniques that transform our understanding of diving from sport to breath-inspired art. Whitty reports on the latest ways in which science extends our understanding of unfathomable waters, opening our eyes to the threats facing coral reefs and to why these fragile oases are vital to human survival.
On the island of Moorea in the South Pacific, she witnesses a group of spinner dolphins caught inside the sieve between barrier reef and coral atoll. In this and scores of other intensely memorable scenes, Whitty emerges as one of our finest writers on the mystery, beauty, and fragility of the underwater ocean world.
Synopsis
At the center of Deep Blue Home—a penetrating exploration of the ocean as single vast current and of the creatures dependent on it—is Whittys description of the three-dimensional ocean river, far more powerful than the Nile or the Amazon, encircling the globe. Its a watery force connected to the earths climate control and so to the eventual fate of the human race.
Whittys thirty-year career as a documentary filmmaker and diver has given her sustained access to the scientists dedicated to the study of an astonishing range of ocean life, from the physiology of “extremophile” life forms to the strategies of nesting seabirds to the ecology of “whale falls” (what happens upon the death of a behemoth).
No stranger to extreme adventure, Whitty travels the oceanside and underwater world from the Sea of Cortez to Newfoundland to Antarctica. In the Galapagos, in one of the books most haunting encounters, she realizes: “I am about to learn the answer to my long-standing question about what would happen to a person in the water if a whale sounded directly alongside—would she, like a person afloat beside a sinking ship, be dragged under too?”
This book provides extraordinary armchair entree to gripping adventure, cutting-edge science, and an intimate understanding of our deep blue home.
Synopsis
At the center of
Deep Blue Homeis Julia Whittys penetrating exploration of the World Ocean as a single body of water connected by a vast and powerful threedimensional current encircling the globe. This undivided body of water profoundly controls and is controlled by Earths climate; its fate determines our own.
Whittys careerfirst in science, later as a documentary filmmaker, and always as a writer and diverhas given her sustained access to the scientists dedicated to the study of an astonishing range of ocean life, from the physiology of “extremophile” life forms to the strategies of nesting seabirds to the ecology of “whale falls,” or what happens in the afterlife of a behemoth.
No stranger to extreme adventure, Whitty travels the oceanside and underwater world from the Sea of Cortés to Newfoundland to the Galápagos. Her book provides extraordinary armchair entree to gripping adventure, cutting-edge science, and an intimate understanding of our deep blue home.
Synopsis
A travelogue of the world's oceans as a continuous system, from the Burroughs Award-winning author of The Fragile Edge, that combines science, characters, wonders, and history.
About the Author
Bringing a unique perspective and a singular voice to contemporary fiction, A TORTOISE FOR THE QUEEN OF TONGA features lush, poignant stories about the natural world. Here are mammals, historical figures, everyday people who discover the liberating properties of memory and knowledge in the face of captivity and loneliness. We meet a forlorn tortoise forced to live among humans. We witness orcas at Ocean World staging a revolt, using celibacy as their weapon. In a French cave, a young computer animator draws parallels between Cro-Magnon and modern women. One story even travels to heaven, where Charles Darwin seeks the source of human happiness.
Whitty joins her authority about wildlife and her rich imagination to spectacular effect. Drawing on twenty years' experience with making nature documentaries, she takes readers inside the minds of animals and people struggling to overcome their limitations. In a voice as magical as it is informed, A TORTOISE FOR THE QUEEN OF TONGA bridges the mythical and the mundane, the animal and the human. Julia Whitty is a brilliant new storyteller in American short fiction.contents
A Tortoise for the Queen of Tonga 1 Lucifers Alligator 26 The Story of the Deep Dark 39 Jimmy Under Water 51 The Daguerreotype 68 Falling Umbrella 80 Darwin in Heaven 96 Stealing from the Dead 117 Sentis Last Elephant 138 The Dreams of Dogs 162Julia Whitty is the award-winning author of the short story collection A Tortoise for the Queen of Tonga. Her cover articles have appeared in Harpers Magazine and Mother Jones, where she is an environmental correspondent and blogger for the Blue Marble. She has produced seventy documentaries for PBS, National Geographic, the Discovery Channel, and others. Whitty lives in northern California.
Table of Contents
Contents
Part I: Rangiroa 1. Rapture 3 2. Swimming in the Bellybutton 11 3. The Manysided Lagoon 16 4. Changeover 22 5. Breath Control 28 6. Inside the Turtles Shell 36 7. The Near-Field/Far-Field Boundary 44 8. Eavesdropping 52 9. Big Songs 58 10. The King of Lake Vaihiria 65 11. Impermanence 74 12. The Infinity Pool 81 13. Inshallah 89 14. Poi Dogs 94 15. The Consorting Together of Dissimilar Organisms 103 16. It Furthers One to Cross the Great Water 108 17. The Lemon Shark Affair 114 18. Grand Secret 121
Part II. Funafuti 19. Hideaway 133 20. Falling Dominoes 140 21. Liquid Faultline 147 22. Leave Your Values at the Front Desk 153 23. Little Cemeteries 158 24. Diving the Apocalypse 166 25. Nuptials 173 26. Just Do It 181 27. Beseeching the Wind Horses 187 28. Sinking Dragons 193
Part III. Moorea 29. The Churning of the Ocean 201 30. An Ocean of Silence and Bliss 208 31. The Sleep of Plants 214 32. Living Lanterns 219 33. The Clamor of True Democracy 224 34. The Spirit of Godly Gamesomeness 231 35. Coral Noose 238 36. Mother Ocean 246 37. Fish Tamer 254 38. A Force Like a Hundred Thousand Wedges 259 39. Gleanings 267 40. Across the Threshold 272
Epilogue 277 Notes 282 Glossary 287