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Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape
Top of the pile
79
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
73/100Critics
77/100Scholars
88/100Author:
Cal Flyn
Publisher:
Viking
Date:
June 1, 2021
Cal Flyn, an investigative journalist and nature writer visits the eeriest and most desolate places on Earth that due to war, disaster, disease, or economic decay, have been abandoned by humans. What she finds every time is an "island" of teeming new life: nature has rushed in to fill the void faster and more thoroughly than even the most hopeful projections of scientists.
What The Reviewers Say
A few of Flyn’s destinations are firmly established on the dubious ruin-tourism trail...But she also visits unfamiliar places.
... brave, thorough.
While her travels to these locations form the central focus of each chapter, Flyn weaves so much more into the fabric of this book. Social histories, comparisons to similar cases across the globe and references to cultural touchstones help illuminate the areas’ current state further. But it’s Flyn’s lyrical, incredibly evocative writing style that truly brings the book to life; her time on Swona in the Orkney Isles is memorable for bookending its historical perspective with somewhat gothic undertones describing her stay.
... studded with arresting facts.
