“Amanda Adams combines in rare fashion the three roles that Vladimir Nabokov assigned to the writer: storyteller, teacher and enchanter . . . A Mermaid’s Tale gives us the poetry of sea creatures: haunting verse, enthralling images and captivating narratives.” —Globe and Mail

“An absorbing book that weaves together mermaid mythology, depictions of mermaids in art . . . and [Adam’s] own personal ‘mermaidenry.’” —Booklist

From the seas of antiquity to the city streets of today, A Mermaid's Tale explores the myth and meanings of the mermaid. Beginning with Melusina, the bathing mermaid par excellence, Amanda Adams goes on to describe the seductive sirens and their honeyed songs, the powerful Arctic sea goddess Sedna, and the long-haired rusalki or Russian lore, among other legendary mermaids. As she tells their stories, she also expresses a love of the mermaid that surely no sea-bound sailor could ever match.

Grounded in cultural anthropology, folklore studies, and intellectual rigor, A Mermaid's Tale also draws on literature, poetry, and mythology for its insights. It is a book filled with depth and detail as it describes Adam's swim through the ocean of her own life in search of the unusual, the beautiful, and the perfectly extraordinary.