Vesper flights : new and collected essays
by Macdonald, Helen, 1970-
Print Book 2020 |
Available at 32 Libraries 34 of 37 copies |
Summary
From the New York Times bestselling author of H is for Hawk and winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for nonfiction, comes a transcendent collection of essays about the human relationship to the natural world.
Animals don't exist in order to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves.
In Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep.
Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk's poplar forests. She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds' nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife.
By one of this century's most important and insightful nature writers, Vesper Flights is a captivating and foundational book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make sense of the world around us.
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Additional Information
Subjects |
Natural history
-- Miscellanea.
Nature. English essays -- 21st century. Essays. |
Publisher | New York :Grove Press,2020 |
Edition | First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition. |
Other Titles | Essays. |
Language |
English |
Description |
ix, 261 pages ; 22 cm |
ISBN | 9780802128812 0802128815 |
Other | Classic View |