A _NEW YORK TIMES _BESTSELLER 'Within two pages, nature writing feels different and fresh and new ... This book demands we find the eyes to see and the heart to love such things once more. It is a very fine book indeed, truly full of wonder' - James Rebanks, author of _Pastoral Song_ 'UNUSUAL AND CAPTIVATING ... A THING OF WONDER, THE BOOK THAT MOST TOOK ME BY SURPRISE THIS YEAR' - JINI REDDY, AUTHOR OF _WANDERLAND_ Aimee Nezhukumatathil has had many homes, but wherever she was - however awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape - she found guidance and perspective in nature. The axolotl smiles, even in the face of unkindness; the touch-me-not plant shakes off unwanted advances; the narwhal survives its hostile environment. Even in the strange and the unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship. Warm, lyrical and gorgeously illustrated by Fumi Mini Nakamura, this book ranges through joy and pain, encountering love, motherhood and heritage, racism and the destruction humans can wreak. In all those things, it shows that if you listen carefully, if you open your eyes wide, the world is full of wonders.