Beasts of the Sea: A heartbreaking fictional elegy to one of the world's most iconic lost creatures, the Steller's Sea Cow
Iida Turpeinen
Oct 2025 · MacLehose Press · Narrated by Lawrence Neale
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7 hr 37 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
"A sprawling, seething epic" Lucy Steeds, winner of the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize
"As deep and profound as the sea itself" Philip Hoare
"Almost hypnotically readable" Guardian
"Remarkable" The Times
1741. The crew of Vitus Bering's ill-starred Great Northern Expedition are shipwrecked off a remote, uncharted island. With no hope of rescue, they give in to despair. Until they discover the flesh of a huge marine mammal that feeds in herds on the kelp in the bay.
1859. The Russian colony of Alaska is on the brink of collapse. Governor Hampus Furuhjelm takes solace in the quest for a unique artefact: a complete skeleton of what is now known as Steller's Sea Cow, rumoured to have disappeared a hundred years before.
Even extinct, the sea cow will continue to shape lives and destinies, from the woman charged with sketching its likeness from its bones, to the expert egg restorer who will refurbish those same bones a century later.
A tribute to an iconic lost creature, and an adventure through three centuries of scientific exploration, Beasts of the Sea charts the unseen consequences of grand human ambitions and the urge to resurrect what we, in our ignorance, have destroyed.
Translated from the Finnish by David Hackston
"As deep and profound as the sea itself" Philip Hoare
"Almost hypnotically readable" Guardian
"Remarkable" The Times
1741. The crew of Vitus Bering's ill-starred Great Northern Expedition are shipwrecked off a remote, uncharted island. With no hope of rescue, they give in to despair. Until they discover the flesh of a huge marine mammal that feeds in herds on the kelp in the bay.
1859. The Russian colony of Alaska is on the brink of collapse. Governor Hampus Furuhjelm takes solace in the quest for a unique artefact: a complete skeleton of what is now known as Steller's Sea Cow, rumoured to have disappeared a hundred years before.
Even extinct, the sea cow will continue to shape lives and destinies, from the woman charged with sketching its likeness from its bones, to the expert egg restorer who will refurbish those same bones a century later.
A tribute to an iconic lost creature, and an adventure through three centuries of scientific exploration, Beasts of the Sea charts the unseen consequences of grand human ambitions and the urge to resurrect what we, in our ignorance, have destroyed.
Translated from the Finnish by David Hackston
"A sprawling, seething epic" Lucy Steeds, winner of the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize
"As deep and profound as the sea itself" Philip Hoare
"Almost hypnotically readable" Guardian
"Remarkable" The Times
1741. The crew of Vitus Bering's ill-starred Great Northern Expedition are shipwrecked ...
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About the author
IIDA TURPEINEN (b. 1987) is a Helsinki-based literary scholar currently writing a dissertation on the intersection of the natural sciences and literature. As an author, she is intrigued by the literary potential of scientific research and by the offbeat anecdotes and meanderings from the history of science. Turpeinen's short stories exploring the relationship between humans and animals won the J. H. Erkko Young Writers' Competition in 2014. Her debut novel, Beasts of the Sea (2023) is the winner of the Helsingin Sanomat Prize 2023, and shortlisted for the Finlandia Award 2023.
IIDA TURPEINEN (b. 1987) is a Helsinki-based literary scholar currently writing a dissertation on the intersection of the natural sciences and literature. As an author, she is intrigued by the literary potential of scientific research and by the offbeat anecdotes and meanderings from the history ...
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