Shells may not be the type of book one expects in Leonardo Reviews. At first sight it is more a (medium sized) coffee table book, beautifully illustrated and containing everything one ever wanted to know about shells (here defined as “the hard, protective outer cases of mollusks or crustaceans”, p. 6), from a natural as well as cultural point of view, with chapters on, for instance, the shell makers (a seducingly presented taxonomy of mollusks), the various uses (aesthetic, ritual, religious, economic) of shells, or the changes of shell life in a changing world (here and now, but also there, before and later).

It would be very unfair, however, to label this astonishing publication in this vaguely middle-brow way, for Shells is not a publication to merely admire or look at. Even if the book does not have a real thesis to defend or a research question to develop –except perhaps for the very last chapter, written by M. G. Harasewych, on the frailty and possible extinction of shell life and natural shell environments in our Anthropocene–, it is a wonderful example of intelligent and attractive vulgarization that touches upon so many different angles, topics, histories, problems and interdisciplinary art and science interactions that it will prove as important for the general reader as it will be useful for any scholar or scientist struggling with the question of valorizing and communicating the essence of her or his research.

An experienced teacher with an impressive publication track record in the field, Fabio Moretzsohn perfectly knows how to write about the object of his lifelong study. He knows how to organize an incredible amount of information without burdening the reader with either overlaps or isolated bits and pieces that one cannot situate in the larger picture. At the end of the book, one will find even more detailed information (a select bibliography, a list of associations and web sites, and even a geographically organized overview of public and private natural history museums all over the world –yes, including Russia! – where one can find large collections of shells, all of which the author actively uses in the different chapters). The internal and sequential arrangement of the book is insightful, moving from nature to culture and progressively moving into approaches that go back and forth between nature and culture, to end with a chapter emphasizing the past, current and future frictions and conflicts between the worlds of nature and culture.

No less illuminating is the dispatch and display of information within each chapter, where Fabio Moretzsohn succeeds in providing the reader with a wealth of information that offers something new in nearly each sentence, while never simply piling up more of the same. This nonfiction that, although not structured with the help of narrative devices, reads very fluently, with a clear organization leading the reader through a large set of definitions (don’t forget the number of mollusks species is close to infinite, that is in this case one hundred thousand, with new species being discovered almost daily), ideas, examples, anecdotes, histories, mysteries, and many other awe-provoking and always intriguing questions. All this is presented in the right pace, not too slow, not too fast. The dialogue with the images, most of them in color and very well printed, is part of a textual rhetoric that organically interweaves visual and verbal “showing”, but a showing that, thanks to the clarity of writing and montage, immediately becomes a form of “telling”. Moreover, the author is never looking for the purely amazing or sensationalist. Topics like shells sometimes dangerously lean over to Barnum-like presentations, which is not all the case in this book: sobriety is the key word, in spite of the almost incredibly form and content of what is described.

Shells can thus be read as the print catalog of a virtual exhibition, with a well-signposted path to delve into a world we all think we know but which has so many discoveries to offer that any scholar or researcher, besides the mere joy of reading all these marvels, should try –at least once in a lifetime? – to do something similar for the research topic and objects he or she is so passionate about. This book, in other words, is an encyclopedia, but one that does not shy away from storytelling and lyricism, yet without postmodern-wise blurring the boundaries between the styles, genres, and registers.