Popular Mechanics (South Africa)
Book review: The Gospel of the Eels by Patrik Svensson.
Strange as these snake-like fish are, who knew so many people are captivated by eels?
FROM CRIME noir to bedside books about hygge, there’s no doubt that Scandinavian literature is having a moment. And then there is this small, strange science memoir about eels, of all things, that became a Swedish bestseller in less than two months.
Already up for the country’s most prestigious literary award, the August Prize, author Patrik Svensson’s The Gospel of the Eels is not only about the world’s most intriguing fish but also how, over the course of time, a wide variety of people have become besotted by these mysterious creatures. It’s also about Svensson’s relationship with his father.
The life cycle of an eel is rather intriguing and the author immediately draws you into the animal’s dreamlike world as he shares the dramatic story of eel migration. In his book, Svensson says that no human has ever witnessed eels reproduce. We also don’t know why these creatures are born in the Sargasso Sea before taking a long journey across the Atlantic only to return to the same sea to spawn and die. And interestingly, eels live in fresh water as adults but are born in the ocean.
Svensson unpacks how eels have been portrayed in literature, science and modern marine biology, and you’ll probably be surprised by how many people, be it Sigmund Freud or Aristotle, found themselves a little obsessed with eels. (It’s recorded that Freud spent four weeks at a zoological research station dissecting hundreds of eels in a search for their male reproductive organs, which turned out to be inconclusive.)
Svensson’s story is dark, enchanting and murky … just like his relationship with his father who was deeply passionate about eel fishing (and eel eating – smoked, roasted or boiled), an activity which is said to be one of the reasons this relatively unknown creature of the deep is now in danger of becoming extinct.
Bleak and brave, slippery and surprising, this book is truly a natural-science memoir like no other.
‘… by writing about eels, I have in some ways found my way home again.’ – Patrik Svensson