Late Migrations
A Natural History of Love and Loss
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Milkweed Editions
Published:13th May '21
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
From New York Times contributing opinion writer Margaret Renkl comes an unusual, captivating portrait of a family—and of the cycles of joy and grief that inscribe human lives within the natural world.
Growing up in Alabama, Renkl was a devoted reader, an explorer of riverbeds and red-dirt roads, and a fiercely loved daughter. Here, in brief essays, she traces a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents—her exuberant, creative mother; her steady, supportive father—and of the bittersweet moments that accompany a child’s transition to caregiver.
And here, braided into the overall narrative, Renkl offers observations on the world surrounding her suburban Nashville home. Ringing with rapture and heartache, these essays convey the dignity of bluebirds and rat snakes, monarch butterflies and native bees. As these two threads haunt and harmonize with each other, Renkl suggests that there is astonishment to be found in common things: in what seems ordinary, in what we all share. For in both worlds—the natural one and our own—“the shadow side of love is always loss, and grief is only love’s own twin.”
Gorgeously illustrated by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, Late Migrations is an assured and memorable debut.
Praise for Late Migrations
A Barnes & Noble Our Monthly Pick selection
A TODAY Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick
“Beautifully written, masterfully structured, and brimming with insight into the natural world, Late Migrations can claim its place alongside Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and A Death in the Family. It has the makings of an American classic.”—Ann Patchett, author of Commonwealth
“[Renkl] is the most beautiful writer! I love this book. It’s about the South, and growing up there, and about her love of nature and animals and her wonderful family.”—Reese Witherspoon
“Reflective and gorgeous . . . I have recommended this book to everybody that I know. It is a beautiful book about love, and [how] . . . to find the beauty in the little things.”—Jenna Bush Hager, the TODAY Show
“A perfect book to read in the summer . . . This is the kind of writing that makes me just want to stay put, reread and savor everything about that moment.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air
“Equal parts Annie Dillard and Anne Lamott with a healthy sprinkle of Tennessee dry rub thrown in.”—New York Times Book Review
“A compact glory, crosscutting between consummate family memoir and keenly observed backyard natural history. Renkl’s deft juxtapositions close up the gap between humans and nonhumans and revive our lost kinship with other living things.”—Richard Powers, author of The Overstory
“Magnificent . . . Conjure your favorite place in the natural world: beach, mountain, lake, forest, porch, windowsill rooftop? Precisely there is the best place in which to savor this book.”—NPR.org
“Late Migrations has echoes of Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life—with grandparents, sons, dogs and birds sharing the spotlight, it’s a witty, warm and unaccountably soothing all-American story.”—People
“[Renkl] guides us through a South lush with bluebirds, pecan orchards, and glasses of whiskey shared at dusk in this collection of prose in poetry-size bits; as it celebrates bounty, it also mourns the profound losses we face every day.”—O, the Oprah Magazine
“Graceful . . . Like a belated answer to [E.B.] White.”—Wall Street Journal
“A lovely collection of essays about life, nature, and family. It will make you laugh, cry—and breathe more deeply.”—Parade
“This warm, rich memoir might be the sleeper of the summer. [Renkl] grew up in the South, nursed her aging parents, and never once lost her love for life, light, and the natural world. Beautiful is the word, beautiful all the way through.”—Philadelphia Inquirer
“Like the spirituality of Krista Tippett’s On Being meets the brevity of Joe Brainard . . . The miniature essays in Late Migrations approach with modesty, deliver bittersweet epiphanies, and feel like small doses of religion.”—Literary Hub
“In her poignant debut, a memoir, Renkl weaves together observations from her current home in Nashville and short vignettes of nature and growing up in the South.”—Garden & Gun
“A book that will be treasured.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
ISBN: 9781571313836
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
248 pages