*First published as The Mara Crossing, now with new and updated material*
'A marvel, a book of wonders. Wonder, pity, and terror, the seething unity of voices in transition that demands compassion - and beyond that, empathy.'
The home is where you start from, but where is the real home of a swallow? And what does 'native' mean if the English oak is an immigrant from Spain?
In ninety rich poems and revelatory prose interventions, Ruth Padel weaves science, myth, wildlife, and human history to call to a world created and sustained by migration - from the millennia-old journeys of cells, trees, birds, and beasts to the geese battling storm winds over Everest, the lemurs sliding down cliffs in Madagascar, and the wildebeest, at the height of their epic trek from Tanzania, crossing a river teeming with Africa's largest crocodiles.
Human migration has shaped civilization, but today it is one of the greatest challenges the world faces. In a series of incisive portraits, Padel turns to the struggles of human displacement - the Flight into Egypt, John James Audubon migrating to America (feeding the migratory birds on the way), migrant laborers in Mumbai, and refugees trying in a rapidly changing planet - to show how the purpose of migration, for both humans and animals, is survival.
Pages: 304, Dimensions: 13.2x13.2cm
