ACQUES COUSTEA´S «ELECTRIFYING, MANY-FACETED MASTERWORK,» FINALLY AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE U.S.A.

«Cousteau consecrated his life to teaching the world about marvels that are at once exotic to us and yet ordinary in the abyss of the ocean. Through his lyrical writings and his films that took your breath away, he placed the underwater world at the door of an audience as extensive as the oceans themselves. I always learned with him.» AL GORE

«As this rich new book reminds us, Cousteau was utterly trustworthy, a figure, like Rachel Carson, moved by no desire deeper than to appreciate the world around, to share that love, and thus to protect it. He was the quintessential explorer...Cousteau divided his career between two tasks, equally necessary: getting people to marvel at the beauty of the oceans, and then pointing out how we were destroying them. It was as if the earliest explorer of the North American continent was simultaneously cataloguing its vast buffalo herds and watching them die...No explorer has ever been faced with quite such a dilemma, and Cousteau handled it superbly.» BILL MC KIBBEN, author of Deep Economy and The End of Nature, from the foreword

«Cousteau´s reverence for life´s miracles—embodied by the evolutionary wonders of the human, the orchid and the octopus - shines through in this eloquent testimony on the importance of pursuing higher ideals, particularly the preservation of the oceans and the natural world for future generations.» Publishers Weekly

«Fresh and stinging...Indelible descriptions of the glory of the undersea world are matched by prescient observations and arresting analysis...[An] electrifying, many-faceted masterwork.» Booklist

«Eloquent and at times almost poetical...This worthwhile look back at the French scientist who taught us to love scuba diving and the ocean raises questions still highly relevant ten years later.» Library Journal

Available at all good bookstores, and: