When Rebecca Giggs encountered a humpback whale stranded on her local beachfront in Australia, she began to explore how the lives of whales reflect the condition of our oceans. The winner of the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and a finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, Giggs's blend of natural history, philosophy, and science is an inspiring study of whales so rare they have never been named, whale songs that sweep across hemispheres in annual waves of popularity, and whales that have modified the chemical composition of our planet's atmosphere.

"Lyrical…. Giggs's writing has an old-fashioned lushness and elaborateness of thought. Its finest passages—and they are many—awaken a sense of wonder."—Washington Post