Why Fish Don't Exist

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025

When Lulu Miller's relationship falls apart, she turns to an unlikely figure for guidance - the 19th-century naturalist, David Starr Jordan. Pouring over his diaries, Lulu discovers a man obsessed with nature's hidden order, devoted to studying shimmering scales and sailing the world in search of new species of fish.

After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake sends more than a thousand of Jordan's specimens, housed in glass jars, plummeting to the ground, his story of resilience leads Lulu to believe she has found the antidote to life's unpredictability. But lurking behind the tale of this great taxonomist lies a darker story waiting to be told: one about the human cost of attempting to define the form of things unknown.

An idiosyncratic, personal approach to this fascinating scientific biography, Why Fish Don't Exist is an astonishing tale of newfound love, scientific discovery and how to live well in a world governed by chaos.