Oren Harman takes us on an exhilarating journey through the creatures that metamorphose, from mayflies flitting above lazy summer rivers, to sea squirts in frigid ocean depths, to poison dart frogs on the steaming rainforest floor, exploring why it happens and what it means for us. Travelling across two millennia, from Aristotle to Darwin to today, Oren Harman tells the untold story of metamorphosis, asking why it has obsessed and inspired us so profoundly. Along the way we meet poets, artists, philosophers, and a cast of scientists as colourful as the animals themselves. But the mystery and magic of this astonishing natural phenomenon remain. Lyrical and intellectually omnivorous, ‘Metamorphosis’ gets to the heart of question: why do we yearn for change but fear it too?