2020 non-fiction book by Merlin Sheldrake
Entangled Life: How fungi make our worlds, change our minds and shape our futures is a 2020 non-fiction book on
mycology by British
biologist Merlin Sheldrake. His first book,
[1]
[2]
[3] it was published by
Random House on 12 May 2020.
[4]
Author
Sheldrake is an expert in
mycorrhizal fungi ,
[5] holds a PhD in tropical ecology from the
University of Cambridge for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama, where he was a predoctoral research fellow of the
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute ,
[6] and he is on the advisory board of the
Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN). His research is primarily in the fields of fungal biology and the history of Amazonian
ethnobotany .
[7] He is the son of
Rupert Sheldrake , a New Age author, and
Jill Purce , an author and therapist, and the brother of musician
Cosmo Sheldrake .
[8]
[6]
[9]
Summary
The book looks at
fungi from a number of angles, including
decomposition ,
fermentation ,
nutrient distribution,
psilocybin production, the evolutionary role fungi play in plants, and the ways in which humans relate to the fungal kingdom.
[1]
[8]
[10]
[11] It uses music and philosophy to illustrate its thesis,
[12] and introduces readers to a number of central strands of research on mycology.
[13] It is also a personal account of Sheldrake's experiences with fungi.
[10]
Reception
The book was published to largely positive reviews. Jennifer Szalai of
The New York Times called the book an "ebullient and ambitious exploration" of fungi, adding, "reading it left me not just moved but altered, eager to disseminate its message of what fungi can do."
[1]
Eugenia Bone of
The Wall Street Journal called it "a gorgeous book of literary
nature writing in the tradition of [Robert] Macfarlane and John Fowles, ripe with insight and erudition."
[8]
Rachel Cooke of
The Observer called it "an astonishing book that could alter our perceptions of fungi forever."
[6] Richard Kerridge, reviewing the book in
The Guardian , wrote that "when we look closely [at fungi], we meet large, unsettling questions... [Sheldrake] carries us easily into these questions with ebullience and precision."
[12]
The book was named on
Time magazine's list of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2020,
[14] and
The Daily Telegraph list of the 50 Best Books of 2020,
[15] and was chosen as one of the best nature books of 2020 by
The Times .
[16] It was serialized on
BBC Radio 4 as the book of the week,
[17] and is a
Sunday Times best-seller.
[18] It won the
Wainwright Prize in the Global Conservation Writing category,
[19] the
Guild of Food Writers First Book Award,
[20] and the
2021 Royal Society Science Books Prize .
[21] It was shortlisted for the 2021
British Book Award for Non-Fiction: Narrative Book of the Year .
[22]
Entangled Life was an inspiration for the Spring 2021 couture collection by
Iris van Herpen .
[23]
Sheldrake presented the documentary "Fungi: Web of Life" , narrated by
Björk .
[24]
References
^
a
b
c Szalai, Jennifer (27 May 2020).
"Whether You're Making a Meal or Cleaning an Oil Spill, There's a Fungus for That" .
The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 .
Archived from the original on 25 August 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2020 .
^
Carey, John (23 August 2020).
"Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake, review" .
The Times .
ISSN
0140-0460 .
Archived from the original on 30 August 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2020 .
^
"Review of Entangled Life " .
Kirkus Reviews . 2 March 2020.
Archived from the original on 17 July 2020.
^ Hsu, Hua (18 May 2020).
"The Secret Lives of Fungi" . The New Yorker .
Archived from the original on 8 September 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2020 .
^ Macfarlane, Robert (7 August 2016).
"The Secrets of the Wood Wide Web" . The New Yorker .
Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2020 .
^
a
b
c Cooke, Rachel (23 August 2020).
"The future is fungal: why the 'megascience' of mycology is on the rise" . The Observer.
Archived from the original on 31 August 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2020 .
^ Harpignies, JP (7 July 2020).
"Interview with Merlin Sheldrake, Author of Entangled Life" . Bioneers.
Archived from the original on 1 September 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2020 .
^
a
b
c Bone, Eugenia (22 May 2020).
" 'Entangled Life' Review: Digging Into Enigmatic Organisms" . The Wall Street Journal .
Archived from the original on 17 July 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2020 .
^
"S02E12 Jill Purce on Overtone Chanting and Ancestral Healing" . Medicine Path Podcast.
Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2020 .
^
a
b Li, Gege (3 June 2020).
"There is so much we don't yet know about fungi" . New Scientist.
Archived from the original on 13 September 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2020 .
^ Cook, Gareth (24 June 2020).
"A Poetic, Mind-Bending Tour of the Fungal World" . Scientific American.
Archived from the original on 20 August 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2020 .
^
a
b Kerridge, Richard (27 August 2020).
"Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake review - from funghi to questions of identity" .
The Guardian .
ISSN
0261-3077 .
Archived from the original on 31 August 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2020 .
^
Dunn, Rob (12 May 2020).
"An ode to fungi reminds readers that the mundane can be sublime" .
Science Books, et al .
Archived from the original on 17 July 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2020 .
^
"The 100 Must-Read Books of 2020" . Time. 11 November 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2021 .
^
"The 50 Best Books of 2020" . The Daily Telegraph . 1 December 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2021 .
^
"Best nature books of the year 2020" . The Times . 29 November 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2021 .
^
"Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake" . BBC Radio 4. 23 November 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2021 .
^
"Entangled Life" . penguin.co.uk . Retrieved 8 January 2021 .
^ Flood, Alison (7 September 2021).
"Wainwright prize for nature writing goes to James Rebanks for English Pastoral" . The Guardian . Retrieved 7 September 2021 .
^
"Awards 2021 Winners" . Guild of Food Writers . Retrieved 19 October 2021 .
^ Bayley, Sian (29 November 2021).
"Sheldrake wins Royal Society Science Book Prize with 'illuminating' fungi book" .
The Bookseller .
Archived from the original on 30 November 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2021 .
^
"Book of the Year - Non-fiction: Narrative" . The Bookseller . Retrieved 11 October 2021 .
^
^
"Home" . Fungi . Retrieved 20 October 2023 .
External links