Beasts of the Sea

An impeccably researched debut, and an adventure through three centuries of scientific exploration. In 1741, naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller joins the Great Northern Expedition, as captain Vitus Bering and his crew scout out a sea route from Asia to America. Although they never reach the American mainland, they make a unique discovery, now known as Steller's sea cow. In 1859, Hampus Furuhjelm, the Finnish governor of the Russian territory of Alaska, sends his men to seek the skeleton of this massive marine mammal, rumoured to have vanished a hundred years before. In 1952, John Grönvall, a restorer at what is now the Finnish Museum of Natural History, is assigned the task of refurbishing the skeleton of Steller's sea cow, long since extinct. Approaching the subject of biodiversity through individual destinies, Beasts of the Sea is a story of grand human ambitions and the urge to resurrect what humankind, in its ignorance, has destroyed. Translated from the Finnish by David Hackston