"To National Book Award–winning author Barry Lopez, the desert and the river are landscapes alive with poetry, mystery, seduction, and enchantment. In these two works of fiction, the narrator responds viscerally and emotionally to their moods and changes, their secrets and silences, and their unique power. Desert Notes portrays the mystical power of an American desert, and the reflections it sparks in the characters who travel there. River Notes, a companion piece, celebrates the wild life forces of a river, calling readers to think deeply on identity and about the hopefulness of their onward journeys, with a lyrical collection of memories, stories, and dreams. From an evocative tale of finding a hot spring in a desert to a meditation on the thoughts and dreams of herons, Lopez offers enthralling stories that enable us to see and feel the rhythms of the wilderness. These sojourns bring readers a specific sense of the darkness, light, and resolve that we encounter within ourselves when away from home."
"From the National Book Award-winning author of Arctic Dreams comes a timeless, intoxicating collection of evocative stories.
A flock of great blue herons descending through a snowstorm to the streets of New York … A river in Nebraska disappearing mysteriously … A ghostly herd of buffalo that sings a song of death … A mystic who raises constellations of stones from the desert floor … All these are to be found in Winter Count, the exquisite and rapturous collection of stories by a multiaward–winning author.
These resonant and unpredictable stories reveal the author’s breathtaking skill in producing painfully beautiful scenes. Combining the real with the wondrous, the stories offer a pure vision of people alive to the immediacy and spiritual truth of nature."
"Humankind's relationship with the wolf is the sum of a spectrum of responses ranging from fear to admiration and affection. Lopez's classic, careful study has won praise from a wide range of reviewers and improved the way books on wild animals are written. Of Wolves and Men explores the uneasy interaction between wolves and civilization over the centuries, and the wolf's prominence in our thoughts about wild creatures. Drawing upon an impressive array of literature, history, science, and mythology as well as extensive personal experience with captive and free-ranging wolves, Lopez argues for the wolf's preservation and immerses the reader in its sensory world, creating a compelling portrait of the wolf both as a real animal and as imagined by different kinds of men. With irresistible charm and elegance, Of Wolves and Men celebrates careful scientific fieldwork, dispels folklore that has enabled the Western mind to demonize wolves, explains myths, and honors indigenous traditions, allowing us to understand how this remarkable animal has become so prominent for so long in the human heart."
"Longtime collaborators John Luther Adams and author Barry Lopez discuss their work, which explores environmental concerns and the relationship between the physical landscape and human culture. With a reading of Lopez's essay "The Invitation" by James Naughton."
"In his first new work of fiction since Field Notes (1994), Barry Lopez embraces fable, historical fiction, and contemporary social realism in these spellbinding stories, all informed by his deep spiritual connection to the natural world."
"National Book Award winner Barry Lopez captivated the world with his bestselling books Arctic Dreams and Of Wolves and Men. Now, in this memoir, Lopez takes the listener on a literal and figurative journey through essays that provide great wisdom and insights into our times. Lopez leads listeners from Japan's beautiful Hokkaido Island to the over-explored Galapagos, to around-the-world journeys aboard air freights, offering new perspectives on nature and humankind along the way."
