Charles Stépanoff is director of studies in the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He has done ethnographic research in Siberia and France on human relations with the nonhuman, including animals, spirits, and plants. The French edition of this book, L’Animal et la Mort, was awarded the France Culture–ARTE essay prize in 2021 and the François Sommer Literary Prize in 2022. Stépanoff is also the author of Voyager dans l’Invisible (2019), published in translation as Journeys into the Invisible by Hau Books in 2025, and Attachements. Enquête sur nos liens au-delà de l’humain (2024).