Irreplaceable: The fight to save our wild places - Hardcover

Hoffman, Julian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 024129388X ISBN 13: 9780241293881

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 2019

Synopsis

For readers of George Monbiot, Mark Cocker and Robert Macfarlane - an urgent and lyrical account of endangered places around the globe and the people fighting to save them.

'A terrific book, prescient, serious and urgent with a careful appreciation of not only the places, creatures and people it brings to us, but also the language used to convey them. This book is an object of celebration and commemoration in itself' Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun

'Powerful, timely, beautifully written and wonderfully hopeful... Julian Hoffman shines a light on what we had, what we have, and how much we still stand to lose' Rob Cowen, author of Common Ground

'Unforgettable. At a time when the Earth often seems broken beyond repair, this courageous and hopeful book offers life-changing encounters with the more-than-human world' Nancy Campbell, author of The Library of Ice

'Wonderful, tender and subtle, beautifully written and filled with a calm authority... No book has done more to champion the idea that connections between the human and the natural are the lifeblood of everything that matters' Adam Nicolson, author of The Seabird's Cry

All across the world, irreplaceable habitats are under threat. Unique ecosystems of plants and animals are being destroyed by human intervention. From the tiny to the vast, from marshland to meadow, and from Kent to Glasgow to India to America, they are disappearing.

Irreplaceable is not only a love letter to the haunting beauty of these landscapes and the wild species that call them home, including nightingales, lynxes, hornbills, redwoods and elephant seals, it is also a timely reminder of the vital connections between humans and nature, and all that we stand to lose in terms of wonder and wellbeing. This is a book about the power of resistance in an age of loss; a testament to the transformative possibilities that emerge when people come together to defend our most special places and wildlife from extinction.

Exploring treasured coral reefs and remote mountains, tropical jungle and ancient woodland, urban allotments and tallgrass prairie, Julian Hoffman traces the stories of threatened places around the globe through the voices of local communities and grassroots campaigners as well as professional ecologists and academics. And in the process, he asks what a deep emotional relationship with place offers us - culturally, socially and psychologically. In this rigorous, intimate and impassioned account, he presents a powerful call to arms in the face of unconscionable natural destruction.

About this title

Review

The power of Hoffman's book lies in the reporting: he doesn't deal - as many environmentalists do - in generalities and alarmist warnings about what lies ahead for the world, but in the specifics of the here and now. (Evening Standard)

If the pen really is mightier than the sword, then Julian Hoffman is a knight errant, looking for trouble, a champion of underdogs. (Caught by the River)

A passionate and lyrical work of reportage and advocacy. (Guardian)

Lyrical and hugely intelligent (New Statesman)

A powerful, tender, inspiring clarion call to save the places that matter, right across the globe. (Nature's Home)

A powerful hymn to humanity engaging with nature...[a] remarkable, illuminating book. (Irish Times)

if you read one book this year, make it Julian Hoffman's Irreplaceable (Shiny New Books)

About the Author

Julian Hoffman is the author of The Small Heart of Things, which won the 2012 AWP Award Series for Creative Nonfiction and the National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature. He was also the winner of the Terrain.org Nonfiction Prize and has written for EarthLines, Kyoto Journal, Beloit Fiction Journal, Briar Cliff Review, Flyway, Redwood Coast Review, Silk Road Review and Southern Humanities Review, amongst others. He lives in north-western Greece.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 024129388X
• ISBN 13: 9780241293881
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416