The Instant
Exploring love, nature, and urban life in a digital world.
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Canongate Books
Published:3rd Mar '22
Should be back in stock very soon
In The Instant, Amy Liptrot explores love, heartbreak, and the urban experience, blending personal journey with reflections on nature and modern life.
In The Instant, Amy Liptrot embarks on a transformative journey from her tranquil life on an Orkney island to the vibrant chaos of Berlin. Yearning for new experiences and a deeper connection, she moves into a shared flat, immersing herself in the city's nightlife and natural beauty. As she navigates the urban landscape, her search for inspiration and love leads her to unexpected encounters with wildlife and the complexities of modern relationships. The book captures the essence of seeking and finding in a world dominated by screens and fleeting connections.
Throughout the year, Amy's exploration is not just physical but deeply emotional. She experiences the thrill and intensity of a passionate love affair that becomes an obsession, illuminating the addictive nature of love and lust. This relationship intertwines with her reflections on nature, as she contemplates the cycles of the moon and the migratory paths of birds, drawing parallels between her personal journey and the natural world around her.
The Instant is a profound exploration of love, heartbreak, and the intersection of the digital age with our innate desire for connection. Liptrot's narrative is both a personal memoir and a broader commentary on the complexities of modern life, making it a compelling read for anyone interested in the nuances of human relationships and the environment that shapes them.
A slim, luminous account of living and loving in Berlin, picking up where The Outrun left off * * Sunday Times * *
I loved this book, such an intimate portrayal of emotional landscapes and the pull of the moon - it's one I'll return to often -- RAYNOR WINN
Brilliant on the addictive bliss of romance . . . [The Instant is] a parable about the quicksands of internet dating, and a survivors' handbook 'for the heartsick' * * Telegraph * *
Intoxicating, generous and refreshingly original. The way Liptrot weaves her inner life with the natural world and the digital world is utterly absorbing. This book is so alive and so wild -- LUCY JONES
Beautiful . . . brilliant . . . The truest thing I've read in a long time. It feels revelatory to read serious, thoughtful writing on the sorts of experiences that so rarely receive it. . . The Instant is the most elegant examination of the internet's distance pain I have ever read -- EVIE WYLD * * New York Times * *
Elegant, melancholic and deeply yearning, The Instant captures something vital about our age: its strange dislocations and connections. I drank it in -- KATHERINE MAY
Enthralling and instinct-sharpening * * New Statesman * *
A book of rare power. Part heartbreaking love story, part pin-sharp exploration of relationships in the digital age, The Instant is an intense and intensely beautiful book about connection, longing and the gravitational power of nature, and human nature, on the heart -- ROB COWEN
Wildness lurks in the edges of this book - nature in its more feral state, and unashamed eroticism. I gulped this slim, powerful, ravishing little book down in one -- CAL FLYN
The Instant is magical, it is sexy, it is redolent of the natural world and it is all the things that makes Liptrot one of the most unique voices writing today . . . We simply cannot get enough Liptrot in our lifetimes. I want her to write a book every year * * Caught by the River * *
- Short-listed for Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2022 (UK)
ISBN: 9781838854263
Dimensions: 220mm x 144mm x 22mm
Weight: 313g
192 pages
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