The Second Body

Synopsis

Every living thing has two bodies. One is the physical body that eats, drinks, sleeps, and moves through the world; the other is the body formed by our place within the vast network of ecosystems and other living beings.

In this lucid and searching essay, Daisy Hildyard explores what it means for humans to be both individual creatures and part of a planetary web. She meets a Yorkshire butcher and watches pigs become food; speaks with an environmental criminologist about wild animals kept as pets; talks with a biologist about the origins of life and with a mycologist about how we define animal life. When a river floods her home, the boundaries between her first and second bodies become impossible to ignore.

About the Author

Daisy Hildyard holds a PhD in the history of science and has written essays on science, language, and seventeenth-century mathematics. Her first novel, Hunters in the Snow, received the Somerset Maugham Award. She lives with her family in North Yorkshire.

Publisher

Fitzcarraldo Editions

Publication Date

November 6, 2017

Format

Paperback

Pages

128

Subjects

Art & Ideas · Nature Writing · Animals & Society · Ecology · Environmental Humanities · Literary Essays

ISBN

9781910695470