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.
