The Savage Landscape

“Cal Flyn is one of the most exciting writers around—for the poetry and precision of her prose, for the vast scope of her learning, for her fearless (and self-questioning) spirit. In The Savage Landscape, she opens one door after another, to wonder, to terror, to rich and mixed feelings, so that we can see the world anew and in all its deepest dimensions. This book is at once thrilling adventure and bracing meditation.”
—Pico Iyer, bestselling author of Aflame

“Profound, exhilarating, and suffused with nuanced wit and insight. The Savage Landscape is essential and deeply rewarding reading for all who seek to understand the wild in our psyches and in the world. Flyn’s explorations are bold, sometimes terrifyingly so, and subtly attuned to paradox, fracture, and beauty. A must-read: put this book on the top of your list.”
—David George Haskell, two-time Pulitzer finalist and author of How Flowers Made our World

“Cal Flyn examines our relationship with the wild places of the earth—and the meaning of wilderness itself—with an unflinching eye. The Savage Landscape is a beguiling book: by turns lyrical, learned, and provocative.”
—Ed Caesar, author of The Moth and the Mountain

“Sublime and uplifting. Throughout history, people have been drawn to the wild to seek beauty, wealth, God, or themselves. Encroached upon and endangered today, Cal Flyn reveals how much we can still to discover in wilderness, both as an idea and a vital part of the living world.”
—David Farrier, author of Nature’s Genius

“A deep, personal and transporting exploration of what we think nature is and, by extension, who we think we are too. In Flyn’s wise hands, our relationship with the more than human world is revealed to be the most important relationship of all.”
—Ben Rawlence, author of The Treeline

“A thrilling, tender, acute tour through the wildernesses of the world outside us and the far wilder worlds inside. Why does the desolate allure? It’s an urgently important, complex question. We need to know for the sake of our souls, our politics, and our planet. Flyn is the perfect guide.”
—Charles Foster, author of Cry of the Wild