‘THE THING ABOUT JELLYFISH’ MEET ‘THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS’

Among the 2015 #NBAward Finalists are authors who wrote about creatures that live in the sea: Ali Benjamin (author of The Thing About Jellyfish, in the Young People’s Literature category) and Sy Montgomery (author of The Soul of an Octopus, in the Nonfiction category).

Judges’ Citation for The Thing About Jellyfish

The Thing About Jellyfish manages that rarest trick of great literature: It is both simple and huge. Ali Benjamin captures the delicate intimacies of envy and grief, while simultaneously exploring the grandest implications of what it means to be alive. Told in prose that is both elegant and gutfelt, Suzy’s desperate search for a structuring principle to her world leads to poignant self-discovery and a big-eyed look at the meaning of existence itself.

Judges’ Citation for The Soul of an Octopus

In this luminous nature saga, Montgomery immerses herself in the mysterious world of octopuses, unveiling their alien senses, varied personalities, rambunctious emotions, and startling feats of intelligence and self-awareness. As animal adventure, it’s wonderfully vivid, with a surprise on every page, but it’s also an inquiry into the fabric of consciousness, weaving together a tapestry that’s both human and animal, whose threads unite us in little-known yet spellbinding ways.