In The Eye of the Sandpiper , Brandon Keim pairs cutting-edge science with a deep love of nature, conveying his insights in prose that is both accessible and beautiful. In an elegant, thoughtful tour of nature in the twenty-first century, Keim continues in the tradition of Lewis Thomas, Stephen Jay Gould, and David Quammen, reporting from the frontiers of science while celebrating the natural world's wonders and posing new questions about our relationship to the rest of life on Earth. The stories are arranged in four thematic sections. Each addresses nature through a different lens. The first is evolutionary and ecological dynamics, from how patterns form on butterfly wings to the ecological importance of oft-reviled lampreys. The second section explores the inner lives of animals, which science has only recently embraced: empathy in rats, emotions in honeybees, spirituality in chimpanzees. The third section contains stories of people acting on insights both ecological and ethological: nourishing blighted rivers, but also caring for injured pigeons at a hospital for wild birds and demanding legal rights for primates. The fourth section unites ecology and ethology in discussions of ethics: how we should think about and behave toward nature, and the place of wildness in a world in which space for wilderness is shrinking. "What happens when appreciation of ecology's wonders and animal consciousness collide with 7.5 billion humans in an era dubbed the Anthropocene, the human age, in which our needs and whims have planetary consequences?" writes Keim. "Epochal issues, yet realized in our everyday settings: a vacant lot, a dammed river, a pigeon with a broken wing. To appreciate more deeply a skipper butterfly's flight or a mockingbird's songs, to look at a river and see something that yesterday was invisible, is no small thing. It is a richer experience of being human." "Brandon Keim's essays beautifully stir the mind and heart. This book is a joy!" ―Barbara J. King, author of Personalities on the Plate "Brandon Keim writes with deep feeling and sensitivity for the lives of animals and builds a vitally important bridge between old-fashioned love of nature and the rapidly growing science of animal intelligence and animal emotions." ―Marc Bekoff, author of Rewilding Our Hearts "The frontier of writing about animals is the attempt to go deeper from the species to the individuals, their lives as they live them. The Eye of the Sandpiper makes that penetration a journey, so that it begins more generally and proceeds to narrow its focus, then steps back and displays to us the big picture. I wanted to speed through this book, but I kept slowing down because it was too engaging to rush. The knowledgeable Brandon Keim is as much a thinker as he is a reporter."―Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel "Brandon Keim is one of our finest chroniclers of nature. His beautiful writing radiates with his deep love for the world around us and the creatures we share it with." ― Ed Yong, The Atlantic Brandon Keim's essays beautifully stir the mind and heart. Keim writes with crystal-clear, at times lyrical language that compels us to turn away from our screens, immerse ourselves in the outdoors, and think hard about our ethical responsibilities toward the environment and other animals. This book is a joy! -- Barbara J. King, author of How Animals Grieve Brandon Keim is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in publications including The Atlantic , WIRED , National Geographic News , Aeon , Nautilus , Scientific American Mind , The Guardian , Audubon Magazine , Grist , Mother Jones , Conservation , NOVA , and Anthropocene .