"A beautiful, wild exploration of an ancient idea: that rivers are living participants in a living world." --MERLIN SHELDRAKE, bestselling author of Entangled Life
From the bestselling author of Underland and "the great nature writer . . . of this generation" (WSJ), a revelatory book that transforms how we imagine rivers--and life itself. Hailed in the New York Times as "a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler," Robert Macfarlane brings us a profound work of travel writing, reportage and natural history. Is a River Alive? is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law. Macfarlane takes readers on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada--imperiled, respectively, by mining, pollution and dams. Braiding these journeys is the life story of the fragile chalk-stream a mile from Macfarlane's house, who flows through his own years and days. Powered by dazzling prose and lit throughout by other minds and voices, Is A River Alive? is a book that will open hearts, challenge perspectives and remind us that our fate flows with that of rivers--and always has.
From the bestselling author of Underland and "the great nature writer . . . of this generation" (WSJ), a revelatory book that transforms how we imagine rivers--and life itself. Hailed in the New York Times as "a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler," Robert Macfarlane brings us a profound work of travel writing, reportage and natural history. Is a River Alive? is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law. Macfarlane takes readers on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada--imperiled, respectively, by mining, pollution and dams. Braiding these journeys is the life story of the fragile chalk-stream a mile from Macfarlane's house, who flows through his own years and days. Powered by dazzling prose and lit throughout by other minds and voices, Is A River Alive? is a book that will open hearts, challenge perspectives and remind us that our fate flows with that of rivers--and always has.