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Clay, Melissa Harrison

An interesting novel about loneliness and our disconnection from nature. It centres on a run down city park and four main characters whose lives intersect through their use of the park. -Goodreads (Catherine, reviewer) Goodreads Reviews Back to Goodreads

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Addlands, Tom Bullough

There have been a number of attempts to graft the style of the so-called new nature writing onto the novel…Tom Bullough’s Addlands is a very creditable contribution to this genre. -The Spectator The stark beauty of the Welsh countryside is given powerful life in this sweeping tale of one family […]

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We Are But a Moment, Ulrich Baer

Philosophical rather than prescriptive, We Are But A Moment explores how we live and die in the 21st century, what we consume, how we inhabit our world, and whether we can all live, and love, in the future. Goodreads Reviews Back to Goodreads

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Alaska Highway Two-Step, Caroline Woodward

I’m speaking with the author and part-time lighthouse keeper just after the re-publication of her book Alaska Highway Two-Step. First published in 1993, the unusual mystery novel is set in part along the legendary route and the release of its new edition coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Highway’s […]

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Kinship of Clover, Ellen Meeropol

He was nine when the vines first wrapped themselves around him and burrowed into his skin. Now a college botany major, Jeremy is desperately looking for a way to listen to the plants and stave off their extinction. But when the grip of the vines becomes too intense and Health […]

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Void Star, Zachary Mason

Vivid, tumultuous, and propulsive, Void Star is Zachary Mason’s mind-bending follow-up to his bestselling debut, The Lost Books of the Odyssey. -Goodreads Catastrophic events propel Zachary Mason’s Void Star, a mind-bending novel in which rising seas have rendered large swaths of the planet uninhabitable, and impoverished masses huddle in favelas […]

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The Book of Joan, Lidia Yuknavitch

In Lidia Yuknavitch’s novel The Book of Joan, the planet in 2049 has been destroyed by war and climate change, and the wealthy have retreated skyward to a ramshackle suborbital complex controlled by a celebrity-billionaire-turned-dictator who continues to suck resources from Earth. –E-flux A riveting tale of destruction and love […]

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Cove, Cynan Jones

Described as “new nature writing,” The Spectator describes Cynan Jones’ new novel as “…an unforgettable adventure. The story of his Crusoe-like hero, adrift on the ocean and reborn after a lightning strike, makes for a wildly rewarding and utterly exhilarating read.” Out at sea, in a sudden storm, a man […]

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Paradise Lost, John Milton

It’s been a while since I have had time to write a new Discover book feature. Partly it is just that this eco-fiction project is entirely voluntary. I also work full-time (in an engaging career) and run a small book publishing company. I want to thank a reader named Dylan […]

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Paradise Lost

Author: John Milton License: In the public domain. February 1992 Project Gutenberg release. Original Publication Date: 1667 Excerpt from Book V His wonder was to find unwakened Eve With tresses discomposed, and glowing cheek, As through unquiet rest: He, on his side Leaning half raised, with looks of cordial love […]

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Only the Animals, Ceridwen Dovey

Ten tales are told by the souls of animals killed in human conflicts in the past century or so, from a camel in colonial Australia to a cat in the trenches in World War I, from a bear starved to death during the siege of Sarajevo to a mussel that […]

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All the Birds, Singing–Evie Wyld

From one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, a stunningly insightful, emotionally powerful new novel about an outsider haunted by an inescapable past: a story of loneliness and survival, guilt and loss, and the power of forgiveness. Goodreads Reviews Back to Goodreads

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The Natural Way of Things, Charlotte Wood

Another Australian author, Charlotte Wood, does not shy away from ecological themes in her critically acclaimed text The Natural Way of Things. A novel that provokes anger, unease and repulsion, among other mixed emotions, this work of what some would call horror (although not of the supernatural kind) is based […]

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Birder Murder Mystery Series, Steve Burrows

Steve Burrows has travelled the world on birdwatching adventures. He’s turned his passion into an award-winning crime series. His latest, A Shimmer of Hummingbirds, takes police inspector Domenic Jejeune on a birding trip to the rainforest, where he hopes to uncover clues about his fugitive brother’s manslaughter case. –CBC Books […]

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Rokit, Loranne Vella

On one hand it’s [Rokit] about travelling back to one’s roots. Petrel’s grandmother was Maltese, so he leaves Croatia, where he’s been living for the past seven years, to learn more about her country. It is also about the fragmentation of Europe – Petrel is travelling at a time when […]

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