The Gospel of the Eels

Svensson's prose surges, eel-like, from languid to wriggling up your arm . . . There is a stillness to Svensson's writing that perfectly suits [both] the eel and his enigmatic father . . . This is a book about tenderness, slime and savagery . . . The power of the [father-son] relationships is in the unsaid.Daily Telegraph

In this lovely, thoughtful blend of natural science and memoir, Patrik Svensson elevates the European eel . . . to an almost mythical status and interweaves accounts of its history, life cycle and cultural significance with stories of his own relationship with his road-paver father . . . We must hope this marvellous book is not the eel's eulogy.Mail on Sunday

This is one of those special books . . . Even if it were only a book about eels, it would be wonderful . . . Svensson is such a good writer . . . I am not sure I like eels, but I loved this book.Sunday Times

Captivating . . . The Gospel of the Eels is, in the end, not really about eels but about life itself . . . Mr. Svensson mixes chapters about the eel’s natural history – or, rather, the history of clumsy human attempts to understand it – with finely observed autobiographical vignettes devoted to his own childhood memories of eel-fishing with his father.Wall Street Journal