Das Evangelium der Aale

The riddle of the eel becomes an echo of every person's questions: Where do I come from? Where am I going? – A literary sensation.

Never in his childhood was Patrik Svensson as close to his father as when they were fishing for eels. As an adult, he realizes that he cannot trace the memory of his father without searching for the fish that connected them – a fish about which we still know surprisingly little. Poetically and thrillingly, Svensson crafts a natural and cultural history of eels, from Aristotle and Sigmund Freud to Günter Grass and Rachel Carson, intertwining it with his personal story. In winding paths, the riddle of the eel becomes a metaphor for life itself. And The Gospel of Eels transforms into a grand, stunning narrative about a peculiar creature and a life in search.