My Life with Sea Turtles: A Marine Biologist's Quest to Protect One of the Most Ancient Animals on Earth is Christine Figgener's love letter to sea turtle conservation.
Figgener chronicles her experiences as a marine biologist in this robust and engaging debut memoir, translated from the German by Jane Billinghurst. She depicts her origins in a small West German town, the encounter with a "single leatherback turtle" in Costa Rica that "kick-started the greatest adventure" of her life, and her dedicated work in turtle research. Figgener highlights enchanting encounters with different turtle species, such as leatherbacks and Kemp's ridley turtles. Her descriptions are augmented by labeled illustrations of the turtles, accompanied by anatomical, biological, and conservation notes, as well as by multiple photos.
This memoir brims with natural beauty, such as nights that "ended with the horizon gradually becoming lighter as it picked up the first rays of sun reflecting off the mountains, bathing... the beach in an otherworldly glow," or the awe-inspiring experience of swimming with turtles in the ocean. Figgener also shares her personal experiences with the challenges of navigating a male-dominated field and her insider's perspective on field work and the roadblocks to nonprofit conservation.
My Life with Sea Turtles is an essential compendium that will provide readers with insight into the life of a marine biologist and a true appreciation of the wonder of sea turtles. --Grace Rajendran, freelance reviewer