Ten essays on nature, ritual, and philosophy âthat are so point-blank vital you nearly need to put the book down to settle yourselfâ (San Francisco Chronicle).
Gretel Ehrlichâs world is one of solitude and wonder, pain and beauty, and these elements give life to her stunning prose. Ever since her acclaimed debut, The Solace of Open Spaces, she has illuminated the particular qualities of nature and the self with graceful precision.
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In Islands, the Universe, Home, Ehrlich expands her explorations, traveling to the remote reaches of the earth and deep into her soul. She tells of a voyage of discovery in northern Japan, where she finds her âbridge to heaven.â She captures a âlight moving down a mountain slope.â She sees a ruined city in the face of a fire-scarred mountain. Above all, she recalls what a painter once told her about art when she was twelve years old, as she sat for her portrait: âYou have to mix death into everything. Then you have to mix life into that.â
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In this unforgettable collection, Ehrlich mixes life and death, real and sacred, to offer a stunning vision of our world that is both achingly familiar and miraculously strange. According to National Book Awardâwinning author Andrea Barrett, these essays are âas spare and beautiful as the landscape from which theyâve grown. . . . Each one is a pilgrimage into the secrets of the heart.â
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