THE BOOK OF SLIME out in English translation!
Granta Books just published Susanne Wedlich’s BOOK OF SLIME!
It was a BBC Book of the Week (link below), the Daily Telegraph welcomed a book “that takes a perverse delight in informing us that we might be on the brink of a new era of slime”, and The Times has published a raving review:
»The reader never really feels as though they have got hold of the matter of Wedlich’s book, rather, they rea being provoked into punching through layer after dizzying layer, through theories about the spontaneous generation of life, through the life cycles of carnivorous plants and into the tactics of Japanese balloon-bomb designers in the Second World War, until, dizzy and gasping, they reach the end of Wedlich’s extraordinary mystery tour, not with a handle on slime exactly, but with an elemental new vision of what life may be: that which arises when the boundaries of earth, air and water are stirred in sunlight’s fire.«
Slime is an ambiguous thing. It exists somewhere between a solid and liquid. It inspires revulsion even while it compels our fascination. It is a both a vehicle for pathogens and the strongest weapon in our immune system. Most of us know little about it and yet it is the substance on which our world turns.
In this ground-breaking and fascinating book, Susanne Wedlich leads us on a scientific journey through the 3-billion year history of slime, from the part it played in the evolution of life on this planet to the way it might feature in the post-human future. Written with authority, wit and eloquence, Slime brings this most nebulous and neglected of substances to life.
Editor Laura Barber upon acquiring the English rights: „Slime is one of those strange things that you tend not to think about until you come into unexpected contact with it in the bottom of your fridge or on the garden wall. But once you do start thinking about it, the more you notice it oozing into every facet of life, from literary classics and children’s games, to sexual politics and the inside of our bodies to the environment and climate change. Susanne Wedlich brings this slippery subject to life with curiosity, authority, eloquence and wit.„
https://www.thebookseller.com/booknews/granta-publishing-book-slime-1192129
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0010x24
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/slime-a-natural-history-by-susan-wedlich-review-s6jdfm7tw
