Description
Book SynopsisThe new book from critically acclaimed writer, Declan Murphy.
‘As I study the birds, animals and plants around me, I cannot help
but see the patterns all living things seem driven to create.’
Declan Murphy’s first encounter with a kingfisher as a young boy was unforgettable. Returning to the rivers years later, he embarks on a quest to study this most brightly-coloured bird during its nesting season, a seemingly straightforward challenge. But the river is slow to reveal the habits and secrets of its residents. Dippers, goosanders, grey wagtails and great spotted woodpeckers all yield their hidden habits to the author’s patient pursuit; yet the kingfisher continues to elude him.
In this work of rare calibre in the mould of the great contemporary nature writers Robert Macfarlane, Helen Macdonald and Tim Robinson, the author’s retreat into the natural world is not simply for the sake of knowledge: nature is his remedy for managing the world around him. Since childhood, nature has provided balance, solace and direction.
As the search for the kingfisher reaches its culmination, these two spheres, the author’s and the others’, suddenly and unexpectedly collide, forcing him to confront how he sees the world and leading to a resolution where balance is restored through the power and intervention of nature. Writing with hallucinatory clarity and singular powers of observation, he brings the beauty and mystery of the animal kingdom to light. His quest becomes the reader’s in the unfolding drama of his search for harmony and knowledge, from mythography to an acute awareness of people’s fragility.
Trade ReviewWonderful and beautifully written. -- John Boorman
We are lulled by the beauty and serenity of the river as much as by crystalline prose and singular focus
-- Alan Gilsenan
This is a mystical and, at times, comforting novel, which explores the beauty of nature, and the loss and death that come hand in hand with it. -- Lasairíona Scarff * Paper Lanterns *
The prose is as beautiful as it is visual. Perhaps this is because so much of the shared knowledge isn’t retrieved from books. It’s from experiencing an environment first-hand. -- Daniel Seery * Dublin Inquirer *
[Murphy's] lush, evocative, explorations gently lead us along in his pursuit as we encounter dabbling mallards, flitting wagtails, bobbing dippers, single-parent woodpeckers and countless other creatures. This gentle breeze of curiosity is ideally aligned with these contemplative, slow-flow, times. * Totally Dublin *
