For three years, Richard Louv listened to America by going fishing. To explore the cultures of angling, he traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific and to the Gulf Coast, too; from bass waters north and south to fly-fishing waters east and west. He joined a professional bass tournament on Lake Erie and got a casting lesson from fly-fishing legend Joan Wulff in Colorado. He angled with corporate executives in Montana and stoic steelheaders in the Northwest. He went ice fishing on Michigan's Upper Peninsula and fly-fishing for sharks in California. In the Midwest, he fished with the host of the nation's longest-running television fishing program. He spent time with the captains of Florida, the poachers of the West, and the regulars who fish the Harlem and Hudson Rivers in New York City.

"Fly-Fishing for Sharks" is the delightful result of Richard Louv's journey, a portrait of America on the water, fishing rod in hand. From Whitefish Willy to Bass'n Gal's Sugar Ferris, the people Louv writes about are simply unforgettable.

As diverse as the cultures of fishing are. Richard Louv found that certain values unite them. Most of the anglers he spoke with care passionately about the health of the country's water; some have pondered what fishing tells us about our changing relationship with nature. Every one of them finds something renewing, even healing, in angling -- and many of these men and women believe that fishing can be a thread that binds the generations. Louv discovers from a Hemingway son what it really was like to go fishing with Papa; he fishes and talks about fatherhood with Robert Kennedy, Jr.; and he shares the joys and pains of caring for his own children.

"Fly-Fishing for Sharks" is by turns funny, thoughtful, and poignant -- a revealing look at our country from an unusual perspective.