John Berger (1926–2017) spent his life learning how to look and exploring the ways in which we see. In the essays collected here, he turns his gaze toward animals—convinced that looking at them is essential, for otherwise, as a species, we cannot cope with our own solitude. "In our solitude, we are forced to acknowledge that we, too, were created—just like everything else. Only our souls, if stirred, recall their original source—silently, without words." Berger succeeded not only in remembering what had been forgotten but also in finding the right words to express it.