Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction 2025.

The profound and life-affirming memoir about finding our way in a chaotic world.

'A sumptuous, surprising, dark delight' Carmen Maria Machado

'Her book took me to strange depths I never imagined, and I was smitten' NYT

As the daughter of a scientist, Lulu Miller was taught that chaos will come for us all. There is no cosmic destiny, no grand plan. But years later, reeling from heartbreak, she stumbles upon the story of David Starr Jordan - a fearless taxonomist devoted to order.

Looking to cure her crisis of confidence, Lulu is intrigued by the hubris of this mighty biologist, who refused to admit defeat when lightning struck his laboratory and earthquakes shattered his collection. Until, digging deeper, she makes a startling discovery. One that will upend her wish for a neatly catalogued existence and reveal the profound beauty of embracing chaos.

PRAISE FOR WHY FISH DON'T EXIST:

'Shimmering' Guardian

'Astonishing' Prospect

'Compelling' The Times

'Fascinating' Daily Mail

'Revelatory' Women's Prize for Non-Fiction

'Magical' Susan Orlean

'Perfect' Mary Roach

'This genre-defying journey into the science of classification weaves memoir and history in shimmering prose' - Guardian

'I want to live at this books address: the intersection of history and biology and wonder and failure and sheer human stubbornness. What a sumptuous, surprising, dark delight' - Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House

'Here is a book that hops nimbly between biography and autobiography, gritty science and lovelorn self-help. And its final, happy leap into the unknown is just astonishing' - Prospect Magazine

'Her book took me to strange depths I never imagined, and I was smitten' - New York Times Book Review

'A story told with an open heart, every page of it animated by verve, nuance, and full-throated curiosity' - Leslie Jamison, author of Make It Scream, Make It Burn

Lulu Miller is the cohost of Radiolab, host of the kids podcast Terrestrials, and author of the bestselling book Why Fish Don't Exist.