Published in 1990
352 pages
Diane Ackerman has been the finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction in addition to many other awards and recognitions for her work, which include the bestsellers The Zookeeper’s Wife and A Natural History of the Senses. The Zookeeper’s Wife, a little known true story of WWII, became a New York Times bestseller, and received the Orion Book Award, which honored it as, “a groundbreaking work of nonfiction.” A movie of The Zookeeper’s Wife, starring Jessica Chastain and Daniel Brühl, was released in 2017 from Focus Features. Diane lives with her husband Paul West in Ithaca, New York.
What is this book about?
Diane Ackerman’s lusciously written grand tour of the realm of the senses includes conversations with an iceberg in Antarctica and a professional nose in New York, along with dissertations on kisses and tattoos, sadistic cuisine and the music played by the planet Earth.
“Delightful . . . gives the reader the richest possible feeling of the worlds the senses take in.” —The New York Times
