Lay of the Land
Living Light
We had sailed Indonesia’s shattered archipelago before arriving at the uninhabited island chain of Wayag — a gumdrop cluster of limestone peaks cloaked in an aura of brilliant, turquoise lagoons. Our Continue reading
Departments
Lay of the Land
Owls Among the Meteors
I’m speeding down a dark Vermont road, hurtling through a star-studded October night on an urgent quest: to witness the banding of one of the world’s smallest owls, the northern saw-whet. Continue reading
Review
China Dream
Released to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, Ma Jian’s China Dream is a razor-sharp indictment and fully loaded analysis of China’s recent history and the future Continue reading
Review
Animalia
Grove Atlantic, 2019. $27, 384 pages. Many characters populate Del Amo’s arresting saga of the toll taken by incest, autism, Catholic shame, and war on four generations of pig farmers, but Continue reading
Review
The Salt Path
Penguin Books, 2019. $17, 270 pages. Since Exodus and certainly in Homer’s telling of The Odyssey, the epic journey, the leaving home in search of one’s self, has been a literary Continue reading