An unexpected, endearing friendship in 'Remarkably Bright Creatures'

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2022

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Can humans and sea creatures communicate? In Shelby Van Pelt's first novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures, they sure can –and they do. The story centers around an octopus in captivity and his relationship to Tova, a grieving 70-year-old woman who cleans the aquarium at night. In an interview with All Things Considered, Van Pelt told Adrian Florido that the idea came to her while thinking about the frustration animals must feel in captivity and the thoughts that might be running through their heads. But it's not only a story about freedom (or lack thereof), it's also a story about heartache, loss, and unexpected friendship.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. It seems to me like there's a hierarchy
0:07.5	of how weird it is to talk to animals depending on the animal, right? Like, I bet all of you
0:13.2	dog people out there talk to your dogs all the time, same with cat people, reptiles and fish,
0:19.3	feels a little weirder, right? And I guess it also matters to how deep
0:24.2	these conversations go, which gets us to today's book, where the main character, Tova,
0:30.1	develops this relationship with an octopus named Marcellus. It's by Shelby Van Pelt, and it's her
0:35.9	first book called Remarkably Bright Creatures.
0:39.3	And she tells NPR's Adrian Florido about how similar Marcellus and Tova are.
0:44.1	And considering the circumstances, them talking, isn't that weird at all?
0:49.3	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:54.2	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:58.8	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:00.8	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
1:04.5	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:08.3	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:13.6	Heartache, loss, and how friendship can help us get through that kind of pain.
1:18.9	They are the themes at the center of a new novel.
1:21.4	Its focus is on one particularly endearing friendship between Marcellus and Tova.
1:30.8	Marcellus is an octopus who lives in captivity in a small town aquarium on Washington's Puget Sound. Tova is a grieving 70-year-old who works
1:37.9	the night shift cleaning the aquarium. The book is called Remarkably Bright Creatures and its author, Shelby Van Pelt, joins us.
1:46.1	Welcome, Shelby.
1:47.1	Hello, thank you for having me.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.