As the sun sets and humanity slumbers, a new world awakens in the dark, filled with spectacular bioluminescence, moon-kissed flora, and diverse wildlife.

While old tales warn us that danger lies waiting in the dark, there is actually an abundance of thriving, colorful life. Solar winds brighten the sky with Northern and Southern Lights. In the desert, elegant datura blooms at night, enticing moths to help with pollination, while in the Rockies grizzly bears make a meal of the insects to sustain them during hibernation. In the ocean, night-feeding dolphins chase nocturnal squid which have made a vertical migration to the surface. In the jungles, jaguars hunt by moonlight while night monkeys swing safely through the trees. Experienced naturalist and photographer Charles Hood captures it all, sharing his nocturnal adventures all over the world, with insight, wit, and over 240 stunning photographs. Open your senses to this darkened world, which is strange yet familiar-and more beautiful than you ever imagined.

Charles Hood is a naturalist, adventurer, and poet. He has also been a factory worker, a ski instructor, a dishwasher, and a nature guide in Africa. Nature study has taken him to all fifty US states, eighty countries, and the South Pole. Along the way he has been lost in a whiteout in Tibet, contracted and survived bubonic plague, and published 20 books and over 800 photographs. His essay collection A Salad Only the Devil Would Eat was named the Nonfiction Book of the Year by the editors of Foreword book review. He lives in the Mojave Desert with two kayaks, two mountain bikes, two dogs, and 5,000 books.