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Patrik Svensson, THE GOSPEL OF EELS
Patrik Svensson, THE GOSPEL OF EELS
Non-Fic
Non-Fic
on on
Patrik Svensson
‘I can’t recall us ever talking about anything other than eels and how to
best catch them, down there by the stream. Actually, I can’t remember us
speaking at all. Maybe because we never did.’
Thus begins Patrik Svensson’s THE GOSPEL OF EELS, a book about fishing
for eels, about his rela onship with his father, as well as a fascina ng
account of the cultural, mythological and scien fic life of eels, the world’s
most mysterious fish.
Rights sold
In a perfectly balanced and evoca ve narra ve, wri en in alterna ng Arabic: Under offer
chapters, we get to know the complex father and son rela onship Bulgarian: Prozoretz
Chinese (simpl): Booky
through scenes of their eel catching adventures on idyllic Swedish rivers Chinese (compl): Chi Ming
and lakes, and in every other chapter we learn of the collec ve Croa an: S lus knjiga
Czech: Albatros
knowledge about the fish itself, from Aristotle to the present day. Danish: Gads förlag
Dutch: Thomas Rap
Remarkably li le is known about the eel, Anguilla anguilla, even today English (UK Com) : Picador
English (N Am): Ecco
and in this age of advanced science and knowledge, that sense of mystery Estonian: Tänapäev
Finnish: Tammi
cap vates us. We don’t even know how they navigate to the Sargasso Sea French: Seuil
where they supposedly breed, and no‐one has ever seen eels ma ng. German: Hanser
Greek: Metaixmo
Hebrew: Modan
Through the explora on of eels in literature , in the history of science Hungarian: Athenaeum
(both Aristotle and Sigmund Freud had very complex rela onships with Icelandic: Benedikt Utgafa
Italian: Guanda
eels) as well as modern marine biology, we get to see this peculiar animal Latvian: Zvaigzne
Lithuanian: Baltos Lankos
from different angles. In this explora on, we also learn about the human Korean: Tornado Media
condi on, our origins, fate, life and death, through memoir and nature Norwegian: Gyldendal Norsk
Polish: Otwarte
wri ng at its best. Patrik Svensson concludes “through wri ng a book Portuguese (BZ): Intrinseca
Portuguese (EU): Objec va
about eels, I have, in a way, also returned home.” Romanian: Cartea Romaneasca
Russian: Mann, Ivanov & Ferber
Serbian: Vulkan
Slovak: Albatros
Spanish: Libros del Asteroide
Turkish: Domingo
Publica on
Albert Bonniers Förlag
August 2019
276 pages
Material
Swedish Edi on
Full English Transla on
Chapter Outline
Patrik Svensson (b. 1972) is an arts and culture journalist at Sydsvenskan Le er from the Author
newspaper. Patrik lives with his family in Malmö, Sweden. THE GOSPEL OF Film & TV Rights
EELS is his first book. Rights Available
Contact
bonnierrights.se | info@bonnierrights.se Elisabet Brännström
elisabet.brannstrom@bonnierrights.se