{"product_id":"beasts-of-the-sea","title":"Beasts of the Sea","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the spirit of Richard Powers and Daniel Mason, a novel spanning three centuries and tied together by the tale of Steller's sea cow--a long-extinct denizen of the northern oceans--at once intimate and sweeping about the tragic clash between man and nature.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1741, thirty-two-year-old naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller joins Captain Bering's Great Northern Expedition to scout out a sea route from Asia to America. Plagued with hardships, captain and crew never reach their goal, but they do make a unique discovery, a gentle giant that will be named for the young explorer who described it: Steller's sea cow.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1859, the governor of the Russian territory of Alaska sends his men to seek the skeleton of the massive marine mammal rumored to have vanished a hundred years before, while his sister curates the settlement's peculiar natural science collection. Two years later, a revered Helsinki professor hires a talented illustrator--a woman!--to make precise drawings of a set of bones sent from afar. The ill-fated beast will help introduce to a skeptical public the concept of human-caused extinction.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFinally, in 1952, the Museum of Zoology assigns its most talented restorer the task of refurbishing the antique skeleton, a testimony to the sea cow's fate that will fire the imaginations of future generations.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeasts of the Sea is a breathtaking literary achievement and an adventure that crosses continents and centuries. Told through the stories of the men and women touched by the long-ago discovery of a curious and placid creature, it is a tale of grand human ambition, the quest for knowledge, and the urge to resurrect what humankind has, in its ignorance, destroyed.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Black Cat Fables","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46700282839189,"sku":"9780316585835","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0659\/2456\/3093\/files\/9780316585835.jpg?v=1764896244","url":"https:\/\/www.blackcatfables.com\/products\/beasts-of-the-sea","provider":"Black Cat Fables","version":"1.0","type":"link"}