Book description
In 1969 Peter Matthiessen set out with the expedition led by Peter
Gimbel, whose aim was to find and film underwater for the first time
the most dangerous of all sea creatures - the great white shark.
Acting as the expedition's chronicler and spare hand (both on the
surface and below), Matthiessen accompanied the crew from the
Carribean to the whaling grounds off the Durban coast, to various
islands in the Indian Ocean, to Ceylon, and finally to success off the
bleak south coast of Australia.
Blue Meridian records the awesome experience of swimming in
open water among hundreds of sharks, the beauties of strange seas and
landscapes and the camaraderie, humour and tension of people who live
in close proximity and risk their lives day by day.
Peter Matthiessen is a naturalist, explorer and writer. His works of
fiction include
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
,
Far Tortuga
and the acclaimed 'Watson Trilogy'. His explorations have resulted in
many fine works of non-fiction, among them
Birds of Heaven
,
The Cloud Forest
and
The Tree where Man was Born.
In November 2008, at age 81, he received his second National Book Award
for
Shadow Country,
an 890-page revision of a trilogy of novels he released in the 1990s.
