COUTURIER | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

A debut essay collection by one of the best new nature writers
"It"s been a while since I stopped being surprised by nature in New York City, which is, after all, simply a name we"ve given this landscape--a label meaningless to the birds, the turtles, the river."
As a child in suburban Maryland, Lisa Couturier spent all her time outdoors, playing with snakes and toads and exploring every inch of what nature offered. Her parents were convinced that she would head out West as an adult, in search of wild lands and animals. Instead, Couturier moved to New York City, and it was there that she began to see nature and all the creatures in it with new eyes.
In The Hopes of Snakes, Couturier brings together the best of her essays on urban and suburban nature throughout the Northeast, from Washington, D.C., to Boston. She writes of the things in nature that we typically love, like the power and beauty of the Potomac River or the majesty of a peregrine falcon soaring above a skyscraper, but she also celebrates the animals we either ignore or consider pests, such as geese, snakes, and crows. Nature is often invisible to people amidst the concrete and glass of dense urban life. But Couturier"s sharp eye and deep humanity have found what is so remarkable in city nature and illuminated it for readers like no one before her.
The Hopes of Snakes is an eloquent and powerful debut by one of the best writers exploring nature in the humanized landscape today.
"Lisa Couturier's essays shine with her candor, her perception, and her affection for the creatures of our world, especially with their difficult encounters on our endless roads and in our inhospitable towns and cities. Whether thesubject is a snake or a falcon or a crow named Edgar, these essays will both enlighten and give much reading pleasure."
--Mary Oliver
"Lisa Courturier has crafted a collection of essays that is, quite simply, stunning. The Hopes of Snakes takes readers into the lives