Synopses & Reviews
A rare memoir of extraordinary, mesmerizing brilliance—a Swedish best seller—by an entomologist fascinated with the natural world and the hidden wonders of life, and which asks: What is it that drives the obsessively curious to exploration and the practice of collecting? Warm and humorous, self-deprecating and contemplative, The Fly Trap is a meditation on solitude, stillness, and the observation of beauty—be it found among insects or in art. Weaving a fascinating web of associations, histories, and personal memories, the book begins with Fredrik Sjöberg's own experience as an entomologist on a tranquil, remote Swedish island, and pulls in the tales of past heroic scientific expeditions to Burma and the wilderness of Kamchatka. As confounded by his unusual love of collecting flies as anyone, Sjöberg pauses to reflect on a range of ideas—the passage of time, art, freedom—drawing into dialogue writers such as Bruce Chatwin and D. H. Lawrence, and the lives of collectors such as René Edmond Malaise, inventor of the Malaise trap.
From the everyday to the exotic, The Fly Trap revels in the wonders of the natural world and, with indelible images and stories, opens up into it a dazzling, irresistible pathway.
Synopsis
A Nature Book of the Year (The Times (UK))
The hoverflies are only props. No, not only, but to some extent. Here and there, my story is about something else.
A mesmerizing memoir of extraordinary brilliance by an entomologist, The Fly Trap chronicles Fredrik Sjoberg s life collecting hoverflies on a remote island in Sweden. Warm and humorous, self-deprecating and contemplative, and a major best seller in its native country, The Fly Trap is a meditation on the unexpected beauty of small things and an exploration of the history of entomology itself.
What drives the obsessive curiosity of collectors to catalog their finds? What is the importance of the hoverfly? As confounded by his unusual vocation as anyone, Sjoberg reflects on a range of ideas the passage of time, art, lost loves drawing on sources as disparate as D. H. Lawrence and the fascinating and nearly forgotten naturalist Rene Edmond Malaise. From the wilderness of Kamchatka to the loneliness of the Swedish isle he calls home, Sjoberg revels in the wonder of the natural world and leaves behind a trail of memorable images and stories."