AUDIOBOOK

The Mourner's Bestiary

Eiren Caffall
4.8
(8)
Duration
9h 26m
Year
2024
Language
English

About

A critically-acclaimed literary memoir braiding together environmental research and the personal journey of generational healing, grief, and chronic illness.
Author Eiren Caffall is the inheritor of a family legacy of two hundred years of genetic kidney disease and the mother of a child who may inherit that legacy.
A literary memoir on loss, chronic illness, and generational healing, Caffall's The Mourner's Bestiary is also a meditation on grief and survival told through the stories of animals in two collapsing marine ecosystems-the Gulf of Maine and the Long Island Sound-and the lives of a family facing a life-threatening illness on their shores.
The Gulf of Maine is the world's fastest-warming marine ecosystem, and the Long Island Sound has been the site of conservation battles that predict the fights ahead for the Gulf.
"Beguiling, idiosyncratic [...] Caffall writes with plangent intensity about our responsibility toward the planet, and her eye for the wonder and beauty of ocean life pierces the illusion of disconnected existence." ? Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant judges citation
"Eiren Caffall has produced some of the most powerful writing on the ecological crisis I have read anywhere. Caffall is a gifted writer, and this book is strong medicine." ? Naomi Klein, author, social activist, and filmmaker

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Reviews

Eiren Caffall lives with polycystic kidney disease, a congenital disorder that killed most of her family members before they were 50. Her performance is graceful and authentic, and she draws the listener into her story with a clear voice and lyrical pacing. Caffall parallels her own ticking time bomb with the developing disaster in the ocean. Her beloved Long Island Sound and Gulf of Maine are pol
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