Barry Lopez became known for his travel novel 'Arctic Dreams'
"A story that purports to show the life trajectory of the grandfather who reads by the pool could very well begin 65 years before that moment in time. Hawaii , in an inlet of the Long Island Sound called Mamaroneck Harbor Thus begins the recent traveling autobiography of barry lopez , which several critics have cataloged as "the best nature writer in the world" . It is not for less: already in 1986, his essay Arctic Dreams (Captain Swing, 2017), which narrated his adventures through the frozen continent, won the National Book Award and the favor of readers.
Now, less than a year after his death, Captain Swing is putting up for sale his most complete work, his most extensive and personal work, Horizonte (Captain Swing, 2021). In it, we accompany you in the trips that he carried out between his 40 and his 60 years, through more than 70 countries . "From pole to pole, from modern megacities to some of the most remote regions on earth, Barry explores and reflects on a world for which he expresses concern, while offering us hope for a better future ", they explain from the editorial.
The volume impresses when you have it in your hands: almost 600 pages . But, already in its first lines, the reading manages to catch you with its lucidity, with its vividness, with the humility with which it portrays the exciting life of this highly cultured writer who has been repeatedly compared to Thoreau . "Halfway between literary journalism, memoirs and the travelogue , Horizon includes brushstrokes of history, science, philosophy, anthropology and sociology , which make this a unique and revealing book . The crowning achievement of one of America's greatest thinkers and most human voices," they continue from Captain Swing.
From Hawaii, as we said, to Corporal Foulweather , in Oregon; of the mythical skraeling island -there are only ruins of old Inuit houses- to Canada; of Puerto Ayora , in Ecuador -one of the places in the world with the greatest biodiversity- Camp Jackal , located in some secret place in Africa-; of Australia to Antarctica , to end in Chili . Lopez takes us by the hand during trips that we would only dream of doing , to impressive corners of the world where there are rarely hotels, but there are all kinds of interesting characters -you have to be to be at the ends of the Earth-: **scientists, archaeologists, artists, indigenous people... **
The author is ecstatic at the sight of nature, but is well aware of its fragility, for example, when his ship is able to navigate smoothly through a traditionally frozen polar area. Where are the bears? Where are the seals? There is no place for these animals in a world that is submerging, Lopez tells us without fuss, through his always honest and modest gaze, through that unique voice that results one of the most eloquent witnesses of a world in dangerous transition.