The Light Eaters - by Zoë Schlanger

About the Book

"A book exploring the emerging science on plant intelligence, uncovering plants' complex and unimaginable capabilities and calling into question what we consider to be conscious agents in the natural world"--

Book Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The New Yorker's Best Books of 2024 - TIME's 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024 - New York Magazine's 10 Best Books of the Year - Washington Post's 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction of 2024 - Smithsonian's 10 Best Science Books of the Year - A Best Book of the Year: Boston Globe, Scientific American, New York Public Library, Christian Science Monitor, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly - An Amazon Best Nonfiction Book of the Year

"A masterpiece of science writing." -Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass

"Mesmerizing, world-expanding, and achingly beautiful." -Ed Yong, author of An Immense World

"Rich, vital, and full of surprises. Read it!" -Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White Sky and The Sixth Extinction

"A brilliant must-read. This book shook and changed me." -David George Haskell, author of Sounds Wild and Broken, The Songs of Trees, and The Forest Unseen

Award-winning Atlantic staff writer Zoë Schlanger delivers a groundbreaking work of popular science that probes the hidden world of the plant kingdom, "destabilizing not just how we see the green things of the world but also our place in the hierarchy of beings, and maybe the notion of that hierarchy itself." (The New Yorker)

It takes tremendous biological creativity to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. In recent years, scientists have learned about their ability to communicate, recognize their kin and behave socially, hear sounds, morph their bodies to blend into their surroundings, store useful memories that inform their life cycle, and trick animals into behaving to their benefit, to name just a few remarkable talents.

The Light Eaters is a deep immersion into the drama of green life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence. In looking closely, we see that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing and make its way toward it? Zoë Schlanger takes us across the globe, digging into her own memories and into the soil with the scientists who have spent their waking days studying these amazing entities up close.

What can we learn about life on Earth from the living things that thrive, adapt, consume, and accommodate simultaneously? More important, what do we owe these life forms once we come to understand their rich and varied abilities? Examining the latest epiphanies in botanical research, Schlanger spotlights the intellectual struggles among the researchers conceiving a wholly new view of their subject, offering a glimpse of a field in turmoil as plant scientists debate the tenets of ongoing discoveries and how they influence our understanding of what a plant is.

We need plants to survive. But what do they need us for--if at all? An eye-opening and informative look at the ecosystem we live in, this book challenges us to rethink the role of plants--and our own place--in the natural world.

Review Quotes

"The contemporary world of botany is divided over the matter of how plants sense the world and whether they can be said to communicate. But research in recent decades has prompted the question that animates Schlanger's book: Are plants intelligent? Schlanger writes about scientists who are studying how plants change their shape and respond to sound, how they use electricity to convey information, how they send one another chemical signals. Along the way, she becomes a sort of anthropologist of botanists. The book's focus on the researchers themselves overcomes a challenge inherent to science writing: where to find drama. The Light Eaters is a special piece of science writing for the way it solves the genre's bind; it doesn't force people or their findings into narrative engines. Instead, the field of botany itself functions like a character, one undergoing a potentially radical change, with all the excitement, discomfort, and uncertainty that transformation brings. The book's power comes from showing a field in flux and reminding us that ideas have their own life cycles: from crackpot theory to utter embarrassment to real possibility to the stuff of textbooks." -- The New Yorker

"The Light Eaters is a masterpiece of science writing. Burning with open-minded curiosity, this exploration of the emerging revolution in plant science will challenge what you think you know and ignite a new way of seeing the plant world. Part detective story, part field trip and part philosophy, this brilliant book stretches the mind, toward a profound new understanding of the sophistication of under-appreciated plants. I feel it as an antidote to arrogance, as it engenders humility, respect and awe for the light eaters who make the world." -- Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

"To read The Light Eaters is to be astounded by the complex behaviors of these ostensibly lower life-forms. Ms. Schlanger's prose is precise yet loving. . . . There are lots of gee-whiz moments here. . . . Fertilize your brain with The Light Eaters and you'll never look at your favorite, or least favorite, plants the same." -- Wall Street Journal

"Schlanger's captivating exploration renders a rich world of plants: weird fern sex, sagebrush chemical communication, scientific debates on flora intelligence, and more." -- Vanity Fair

"...Schlanger reminds us of a common truth that we tend to take for granted: plants are remarkable. Behind each stage of development in their lives is a complex system, one that she describes in awe-inspiring detail. Combining research with her own personal stories, the author illuminates why plants are so vital to our ecosystem and asks pressing questions about the relationship between humans and natural life. The result is a surprising and tender book of science writing that urges us all to reconsider how we think about the greenery that lives both in our homes and outside of them." -- TIME, The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024

"... [Zoë] looks beyond the leaves and branches to how our verdant neighbors perceive our world, offering a plant's eye view of life. . . . [The Light Eaters] shines." -- Smithsonian Magazine, "The Ten Best Science Books of 2024"

"The human mind will boggle at least once per page." -- Boston Globe, 75 Best Books of 2024

"The vegetable kingdom is full of wonders and mysteries, as Schlanger lavishly demonstrates in The Light Eaters . . . These are the unsung miracles that surround us daily . . . The Light Eaters ushers those marvels onto center stage." -- Slate

"It takes tremendous biological creativity to be a plant. Zoë Schlanger takes us across the globe, digging into her own memories and into the soil with the scientists who have spent their waking days studying these amazing entities up close." -- New York Public Library, "Best Books for Adults 2024"

"This marvel of a book takes readers into the magical world of plants, as environmental and science reporter Schlanger sublimely shows that they are intelligent beings too. She expertly explains that plants can communicate, hear, and adapt. They're not trying to mimic humans either; they have their own complex structures and systems." -- Library Journal, Best Nonfiction of 2024

"Schlanger's well-crafted descriptions provide a rare and welcome glimpse into the humanity and dedication of botanists . . . The Light Eaters overflows with the author's infectious enthusiasm. Plant lovers will find much of interest in Schlanger's inspiring tale of where her curious mind has led her." -- Nature

"The Light Eaters is riveting and revolutionary and I'm devouring it in small bites to digest how it's reorganizing my universe." -- Rebecca Solnit, author of A Field Guide to Getting Lost and Men Explain Things to Me

"I'll never look at plants--or the natural world--in the same way again, after reading Zoë Schlanger's stunning book. Instead of trying to ram the square peg of botanical life into the round holes of human biology and metaphors, Schlanger instead considers plants on their own terms, as they actually are. The result is mesmerizing, world-expanding, and achingly beautiful." -- Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of An Immense World and I Contain Multitudes

"Like its subject, The Light Eaters is rich, vital, and full of surprises. Read it! You will look at the world in a new way." -- Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White Sky and The Sixth Extinction

"A brilliant must-read about the marvels of the green world. This book shook and changed me, revealing plant intelligence as more strange and wondrous than I could imagine. Zoë Schlanger's explorations brim with curiosity and every page brings new revelation and insight." -- David George Haskell, author of Sounds Wild and Broken, The Songs of Trees, and The Forest Unseen

"[A] revelatory debut . . . The Light Eaters is an enchanting read that will compel you to consider the well-being of your humble houseplant." -- TIME, The 100 Must-Read Books of 2024

"Part science journalism, part travelogue, and part introspective journey, Zoë Schlanger's new book, The Light Eaters, explores the remarkable capabilities of plants and how understanding their complex, dynamic nature could change the way we see ourselves." -- Science

"Schlanger's extensive reporting on the latest scientific thinking, paired with her own salient observations, allows for a fresh understanding of plants and their role in the world."
-- Washington Post

"A stunning book . . . will transform how you see not only plants but the nature of all life." -- Scientific American

"In elegant prose and with a sense of awe, [Schlanger] describes plants' remarkable adaptive techniques, communicative abilities, and social behaviors." -- Christian Science Monitor, The Best Reads of 2024

"Zoë Schlanger offers a mighty antidote to our tyranny of self-reference through the emerging science of organic beings we have long treated as stage decor for the drama of our earthly lives . . . Rising from the pages is that rare achievement of meeting otherness on its own terms while broadening and deepening the terms on which we live our human lives." -- Maria Popova, The Marginalian

"...an astounding exploration of the remarkable abilities of plants and fungi....There are mind-bending revelations on every page, and Schlanger combines robust intellectual curiosity with delicate lyricism....Science writing doesn't get better than this."
-- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"This is that rare book that fascinates, challenges widely held assumptions, and enlightens in like measure.... it is hard to imagine a more thorough introduction or a writer more dedicated to her subject and provocative in the questions she asks." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Just as books by Peter Wohlleben and Suzanne Simard have deepened our understanding of trees, the discoveries Schlanger shares in this involving, vibrant, and affecting dispatch from the vanguard of plant research profoundly expands our appreciation for plants, their essential role in the great web of life, and how recognition of plant intelligence can help us reverse environmental decimation." -- Booklist (starred review)

"Captivating." -- The Guardian

"[A] fascinating journey through contemporary botanical research." -- Orion

"In her engrossing new book The Light Eaters, Zoë Schlanger . . . offers uncanny examples of plant intelligence while exploring the possible ramifications of this for humans (and plants themselves)." -- The Globe and Mail (CA)

"The Light Eaters is a love letter to the world of plants. In this well-researched look into the way plants have learned to survive, we meet plants with flowers that change the shape of their blooms to better accommodate pollinators and vines that learn to blend in with the bushes they grow around. With her examination of these incredible specimens of the natural world, Zoë Schlanger illustrates what humanity can learn from the never-ending wisdom of plants." -- Book Riot

"Schlanger [speaks] about the sometimes spicy and always rigorous world of plant science, undoing the myth of separation, learning to hold the complexity of plants, and what we stand to gain by welcoming them as intelligent kin, rather than simply decoration." -- Atmos

"It's rare that you read a book that makes you want to grab people to tell them what it's about, but this is one of them." -- Daily Mail (UK)

"The Light Eaters delivers: Schlanger's thinking is rigorous and she describes these contentious intellectual debates with a sense of fairness and curiosity." -- Undark Magazine

"Remarkable . . . Read The Light Eaters and you will never again look at the plants around you the same." -- Sylvanian

"Communicating the latest advances in biology is often left to the scientists, but Zoë Schlanger proves that a good storyteller can make all those peer-reviewed papers and monotonous lab studies come alive for an interested reader . . . Beautifully written and unexpectedly provocative, Schlanger's book deserves all its accolades." -- PASTE, Five Great Nature Books to Get Your Mind Off Other Things

"A thought-provoking read full of mystery, curiosity and empathy." -- Scout Magazine (CA)

"This book . . . grounded me in ways that I did not know I needed. It's also a brilliant reminder that these feelings of wonder -- about the world humming around us, and the plants and more subtle life forms that we so often take for granted -- are also critical to reinspiring our love and desire to care for this planet." -- Los Angeles Times

"[I] am enraptured by Zoë Schlanger's The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth. . . . it's oh-so readable and the breadth of [Zoë's] coverage is extraordinary." -- Master Gardeners Association of BC

"A fascinating look at the hidden world of plant intelligence." -- Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Garden & Gun, The Great Southern Summer Reading List

"Schlanger shares [countless new realizations] with us, in astonishing detail, along with an infectious enthusiasm." -- Charleston Post and Courier

"A rigorous thinker and gifted, expansive storyteller, Schlanger gives us the context to understand what we're learning, interspersing details of plant physiology with sweeping overviews of how life evolved on Earth, the history of the scientific method, and the place of plants in Indigenous cultures. This stunning book upends our take-them-for-granted view of plants and encourages us to really see them--to our profound benefit." -- Civil Eats, Our Summer 2024 Food and Farming Book Guide

"The Light Eaters chronicles an expansive collection of recent, mind-blowing botanical discoveries. Touching on plants' ability to communicate, be social, sense physical and auditory stimulation (i.e. feel and hear), and even remember, these studies collectively take on the controversial question of whether plants might be intelligent, or even conscious, beings. . . . It's a lofty statement, but as a devout lover of plants myself, I was more than willing to accompany her rigorous reporting toward new understanding." -- Pioneer Works

"[Schlanger's] reporting, far from blurring the boundary between persons and plants, instead dramatizes the plant kingdom as a strange, alien world, right here and ready to teach us that there are more things in Heaven and Earth than we have yet dreamt." -- Front Porch Republic

". . . fascinating . . .Schlanger, who initially turned to the topic as a distraction from her relentlessly dispiriting work as a climate journalist (before quitting to obsess about plants full-time), introduces the reader to an engaging cast of boundary-pushing botanists and follows her curiosity to laboratories, jungles, and even a cave. Filled with eye-popping examples of vegetal feats and buoyed by Schlanger's earnest infatuation, The Light Eaters may not arrive at an indisputable conclusion--the debate continues, after all--but you will likely never look at your houseplants the same way." -- Audubon Magazine, These 7 Books About Plants Deserve a Spot on Your Birding Bookshelf