Match BookWhy Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
Lulu Miller
2020 · 225 pages · Narrative nonfiction
How it reads
Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life is narrative nonfiction (science memoir, specifically), and its dominant mood is hopeful. Whatever it puts its people through, it believes things can get better. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in several locations, in the historical past, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are loss and grief, love and nature. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 225 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something hopeful
- you want a complete story in one book
- you want to be sure it ends well
Maybe not if…
- you need something melancholy or dark
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- narrative nonfiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- early career
- Setting: place
- multiple locations
- Setting: time
- historical
- Mood / feeling
- hopeful
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- balanced
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- first person, one narrator
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- loss and grief, love, nature
- Ending style
- resolved and happy
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- In Defense of Food: An Eater's ManifestoMichael PollanShares: narrative nonfiction, hopeful mood, balanced tone, moderate pace
- Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday LifeHelen CzerskiShares: narrative nonfiction, hopeful mood, balanced tone, moderate pace
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates UsDaniel H. PinkShares: narrative nonfiction, hopeful mood, balanced tone, moderate pace
- Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to LeadSheryl SandbergShares: narrative nonfiction, hopeful mood, balanced tone, moderate pace
- Neural Networks and Deep LearningMichael NielsenShares: narrative nonfiction, hopeful mood, balanced tone, moderate pace
The Infinite GameSimon SinekShares: narrative nonfiction, hopeful mood, balanced tone, moderate pace
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