The Light Eaters

“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

“overflows with the author’s infectious enthusiasm. Plant lovers will find much of interest” Nature

“To read The Light Eaters is to be astounded by the complex behaviors of these ostensibly lower life-forms. 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 … 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

“… 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.” Slate

“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”

“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

Zoe Schlanger is currently a staff reporter at the Atlantic, where she covers climate change. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, Time, Newsweek, The Nation, Quartz, and on NPR among other major outlets, and in the 2022 Best American Science and Nature Writing anthology. A recipient of a 2017 National Association of Science Writers’ reporting award, she is often a guest speaker in schools and universities. Zoe graduated with a B.A. from New York University.