An Immense World delivers miracles on every page. A fly’s vision updates six times faster than a human’s, perhaps rending its perception of our movements in slow motion. Cows’ gazes appear unfocused because they see in a horizontal band and register activity in front, next to, and behind them at the same time. A mallard has panoramic vision and so sees “the world simultaneously moving toward it and away from it.” Ed Yong’s exploration of the strange, awesome universe of animal senses will completely reshape your view of the planet and fellow inhabitants, beginning with the concept of umwelt, which in German means environment or surroundings, but refers to how senses shape an organism’s experiences and interpretation of the world. It is an astonishing, lively, and entertaining book, and an important one, too: Yong shows that the limits of our perception affect, well, everything, and that imagining the umwelten of others encourages us to be more sensitive and less damaging earthly citizens.