The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

Bloomsbury presents The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey read by Kate Handford
'Fabulous, a triumph, and it will remain a favourite forever.' CHRIS PACKHAM
'A miniature masterpiece.'THE INDEPENDENT
'Charming and absorbing.' THE TIMES
In celebration of its fifteen year anniversary, and including a new foreword by Helen Macdonald, this multi-award winning account of a close encounter with nature will delight readers everywhere.
While an illness keeps her bedridden, Elisabeth Tova Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence in a flowerpot alongside her bed. She enters the rhythm of life of this mysterious creature, and comes to a greater understanding of her own confined place in the world. In a work that beautifully demonstrates the rewards of closely observing nature, she shares the inspiring and intimate story of her connection with Neohelix albolabris - a common woodland snail.
Intrigued by the snail's world - from its strange anatomy to its mysterious courtship activities - she becomes a fascinated and amused observer of the snail's curious life. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating reveals how much of the natural world we overlook in our busy daily lives, while affirming the extraordinary life of even the tiniest of species.
A remarkable journey of survival and resilience, this beautiful book shows how a small part of the natural world can illuminate our own human existence and deepen our appreciation of what it means to be fully alive.

Elisabeth Tova Bailey-s essays and short stories have been published in the Missouri Review, Northwest Review and the Sycamore Review. Winner of the John Burroughs Medal (US) and the William Saroyan International Prize for Nonfiction, she has also received several Pushcart Prize nominations and the essay on which this book is based received a Notable Essay Listing in Best American Essays. She lives in Maine, US.