The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

The delightful account of how a close connection with nature brought joy to a woman incapacitated through illness. While an illness keeps her bedridden, Elisabeth Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence in a terrarium alongside her bed. She enters the rhythm of life of this mysterious creature, and comes to a greater understanding of her own confined place in the world. In a work that beautifully demonstrates the rewards of closely observing nature, she shares the inspiring and intimate story of her close encounter with Neohelix albolabris – a common woodland snail. Intrigued by the snail’s world – from its strange anatomy to its mysterious courtship activities – she becomes a fascinated and amused observer of the snail’s curious life. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is an affirmation of the healing power of nature, revealing how much of the world we miss in our busy daily lives, and how truly magical it is. A remarkable journey of survival and resilience, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating shows how a small part of the natural world can illuminate our own human existence and deepen our appreciation of what it means to be fully alive.

Table of Contents:
Prologue Part I - The Violet-Pot Adventures Field Violets Discovery Explorations Part II - A Green Kingdom The Forest Floor Life in a Microcosm Time and Territory Part III - Juxtapositions Thousands of Teeth Telescopic Tentacles Marvellous Spirals Secret Recipes Part IV - The Cultural Life Colonies of Hermits Midnight Leap A Snail’s Thoughts Deep Sleep Part V - Love and Mystery Cryptic Life Affairs of a Snail Bereft Offspring Part VI - Familiar Territory Release Winter Snail Spring Rain Night Stars Epilogue Acknowledgements Appendix: Terraria Selected Sources

About the Author :
Elisabeth Tova Bailey is a writer whose essays and short stories have been published in the Missouri Review, Northwest Review, and the Sycamore Review. She has received several Pushcart Prize nominations, and the essay on which this book is based received a Notable Essay Listing in Best American Essays. She lives in Maine.

Review :
An astonishing book that portrays a woman who’s incapacitated through illness; she’s lying in bed, can’t move, and someone brings her a flower in a pot and on it is a snail. It’s about her relationship with that snail. The narrative content is limited, but what she does with it is incredible. This slim, thoughtful book is a miniature masterpiece. This book is an ideal present, an anecdotal influence, a reminder of what it is to be alive, and most of all, a warm-hearted story of a real person who found her path with the help of one of nature's smallest creations. This book is beautifully written and is an amazing story of how the human spirit can be so strong, even in the most adverse of circumstances. It is a wonderful illustration of the healing power of nature. A charming, delicate meditation on the meaning of life. Bailey has involuntarily spent over 20 years coping with restricted movement. This intimate account of her snail-like life challenges readers to seek calm in their own lives. A rich meditation on snails and time and habitation and purpose at a time when all other life was out of reach. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is an affirmation of the healing power of nature, revealing much of the world we miss in our busy daily lives, and how truly magical it is. Lyrical, universal, deeply felt, and with an enormously generous soul, the gently told story grants readers a heightened appreciation for the ever-shrinking, ever-fascinating, secretive parts of our unkempt world. If evidence were needed of the healing and enriching power of the natural world, Elisabeth Bailey's passionate, heart-warming and illuminating little book is definitive proof. This charming little book tells us to slow down, take note and learn from all that's around us. Single-handedly, this easy-to-read, absorbing book shares with us one woman's suffering, the power of nature to soothe, and an awarness of the natural world that we may previously have overlooked. Beautifully observed nature study of a creature most would dismiss as just a step from the slug - by an American author who has M.E. We're invited to draw the obvious parallels and she pulls it off, elegantly. Bailey's book is like a snail's shell, with an inexpectedly touching friendship lying at its centre. Spiralling outwards are meditations on time, purpose and purposelessness, evolution and human survival. If evidence was needed of the healing and uplifting power of nature, then Elisabeth Tova Bailey's passionate, heart warming and illuminating writing offers real proof. With exquisite delicacy, Bailey doesn't mention the French enthusiasm for eating them with garlic butter. In fact, if the only time you think about snails is when you storm into the garden to wreak vengeance on them for ravaging your hostas, Bailey's beautifully written, brief memoir may change your views forever. This book offers a very different perspective (of life) and is beautifully written and meticulously researched. Once in a while a read comes along which transcends all expectations and Elisabeth Tove Bailey’s The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating was just such a book for me. ... Fabulous, a triumph, and it will remain a favourite forever. The writing [is] exquisitely tender and so full of insight. I will never look at a snail again in the same light. Charming and absorbing. A little gem … I commend [this] book to anyone who has ever had to spend more than a day in bed. A beautiful little book which is written with a real gentleness and is very enjoyable to read.