The Inner Life of Animals

Author Peter Wohlleben
Narrator Thomas Judd
Publisher Random House
Publish Date 19 October 2017
Run Time 6 hours and 2 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Animals and society, Nature and the natural world: general interest, Popular science, Science: general issues, Society and Social Sciences.

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What to expect

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Inner Life of Animals by Peter Wohlleben, read by Thomas Judd.

Mother deer that grieve?
Horses that feel shame?
Squirrels that adopt their grandchildren?

We humans tend to assume that we are the only living things able to experience feelings intensely and consciously. But have you ever wondered what’s going on in an animal’s head?

From the leafy forest floor to the inside of a bee hive, The Inner Life of Animals takes us microscopic levels of observation to the big philosophical, ethical and scientific questions. We hear the stories of a grateful humpback whale, of a hedgehog who has nightmares, and of a magpie who commits adultery; we meet bees that plan for the future, pigs who learn their own names and crows that go tobogganing for fun. And at last we find out why wasps exist.

As more and more researchers are discovering, animals experience a rich emotional life that is ready to be explored. The Inner Life of Animals will show you these living things in a new light and will open up the animal kingdom like never before.

Critics Review

Always fascinating… Wry, avuncular, careful and kind, Wohlleben guides us from one creature to the next

Guardian

Wohlleben presents short chapter in bite-sized portions, so the reader has a constant sense of learning something new almost with every page … The formula is provably winning. I still felt I was on a robust learning curve as subjects as diverse as motherly love, gratitude, deception, desire, shame and knowledge of good and evil were explored one by one … fascinating

Observer

Wohlleben is connecting with something big here… He truffles up some wonderful animal facts, too… Wohlleben’s empathy with animals can be touching and illuminating

Sunday Times

Entertaining and enthusiastic

Daily Telegraph

The Inner Life of Animals will rock your world. Surprising, humbling, and filled with delight, this book shows us that animals think, feel, and know in much the same way as we do — and that their lives are, to them, as precious as ours are to us.

Sy Montgomery, author of THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS

[Wohlleben] neatly combines anecdotes and scientific evidence in his search for the answers to some basic questions, such as do animals feel things the way we do?… Wohlleben has no doubt that all animals have a rich inner life. By the end of this delightful, surprising book, most readers will be persuaded that he is right.

Daily Mail

The tone is friendly and informal and the prose largely free of scientific jargon… Entertaining and thought-provoking

Spectator

Wouldn’t it be fascinating to know what animals think? Here, Peter Wohlleben explores a range of bestial emotions we didn’t know existed… unveiling remarkable insights into their hidden lives in the process

Country Living

A fascinating read

Sam Swannack, on COUNTRYFILE

Peter Wohlleben’s convincing, highly readable stories about free-living and domestic animals show there’s much overlap between how humans and other animals experience bonding, loss, and the great, shared themes of life.

Carl Safina, author of BEYOND WORDS: WHAT ANIMALS THINK AND FEEL

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