Tisala

In 1960, David, a young London biologist researching in the Scottish Islands encounters a Blue Whale – Tisala. David becomes convinced that the whale is trying to communicate. With the help of an acoustic engineer a breakthrough is made. Two worlds meet. The whale, Tisala, wants David to help save the few remaining Blue Whales from being hunted to extinction. Set against the background history of whaling, the cruel slaughter of the greatest mammals on earth, and the struggle to stop it, the existence of a higher intelligence emerges. This is a story of love, passion and friendship in which the lives of Tisala and David are bound up with the problems of the modern world. In the sweep of twentieth century history, Tisala comes to understand that mankind threatens its own future as well as much of life on Earth. In this philosophical and satirical novel Richard Seward Newton, through Tisala, turns his mind to the great issues facing humanity, from war, religion and population to education, economics and ethics, and seeks to distil the knowledge and wisdom that might lead to a happier world. It is an astonishing voyage of exploration in understanding the world in which we live.A profound, sad, hope-filled, epic story.

Reviews of Tisala

"Richard Seward Newton's leviathanic work is an extraordinary feat of fantasy and philosophy, fascinatingly bound up in the all-too real and vexed shared history between human and whale". Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan or, The Whale, and The Sea Inside; "Richard Seward Newton has written an amazingly fresh and fascinating novel focused on the loving friendship between a biologist and a blue whale. Full of wisdom, romance, and philosophy, it is at once an inspiring adventure, a denunciation of whaling, and an exploration for durable truths. Tisala is a richly nourishing book, an intellectual tour de force, and a compelling story about the inhumane barbarity of humans. Newton gently encourages us to re-think what it means to live ethically. I could not put this engrossing book down." Professor Chris Palmer, author of Shooting in the Wild, Distinguished Film Producer in Residence at American University, and Director of the Center for Environmental Filmmaking in Washington, DC.