Merlin Sheldrake

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - "Merlin Sheldrake's marvelous tour of these diverse and extraordinary life forms is eye-opening on why humans should consider fungi among the greatest of earth's marvels. . . . Wondrous."--Time A mind-bending journey into the hidden universe of fungi, "one of those rare books that can truly change the way you see the world around you" (Helen Macdonald, author of H Is for Hawk).WINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE - NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time - BBC Science Focus - The Daily Mail - Geographical - The Times - The Telegraph - New Statesman - London Evening Standard - Science FridayWhen we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave.In Entangled Life, the brilliant young biologist Merlin Sheldrake shows us the world from a fungal point of view, providing an exhilarating change of perspective. Sheldrake's vivid exploration takes us from yeast to psychedelics, to the fungi that range for miles underground and are the largest organisms on the planet, to those that link plants together in complex networks known as the "Wood Wide Web," to those that infiltrate and manipulate insect bodies with devastating precision.Fungi throw our concepts of individuality and even intelligence into question. They are metabolic masters, earth makers, and key players in most of life's processes. They can change our minds, heal our bodies, and even help us remediate environmental disaster. By examining fungi on their own terms, Sheldrake reveals how these extraordinary organisms--and our relationships with them--are changing our understanding of how life works.SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH BOOK AWARD - LONGLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE"Entangled Life is a gorgeous book of literary nature writing in the tradition of [Robert] Macfarlane and John Fowles, ripe with insight and erudition. . . . Food for the soul."--Eugenia Bone, Wall Street Journal"[An] ebullient and ambitious exploration . . . This book may not be a psychedelic--and unlike Sheldrake, I haven't dared to consume my copy (yet)--but reading it left me not just moved but altered, eager to disseminate its message of what fungi can do."--Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

Over ten years ago, Anna Tsing's essay 'Unruly Mushrooms as Companion Species' made its unofficial appearance in post-humanist academic circles. In 2011 it was first published in issue 18 of Antennae, and then proceeded to spawn the book The Mushroom at the End of the On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins in 2015. Tsing's work on mushrooms stood at the edge of non-anthropocentric reasoning, challenging categories and hierarchies to radically redesign conceptions of identity, companionship, and agency. To many, Tsing's proposal initially seemed extreme, but today, after the emergence of critical plant studies, interest in omnipresent fungi and their invisible ability to support and orchestrate global ecosystems is steadily on the rise. This issue of Antennae features the work of many scholars, researchers, and artists who have harnessed the world-forming power of empathy and imagination in order to make visible what has for too long been made invisible. Over time, they have devised new and much-needed thinking structures that can reconnect us with the ecosystems and ecologies we share with other earthlings.