Craig Childs

From the author of The Secret Knowledge of Water and Atlas of a Lost World comes a deeply felt essay collection focusing upon a vivid series of desert icons-a half–blind bighorn ram, a sheet of virga over Monument Valley, solitude on the Green River. Craig Childs delves into the primacy of the land and the profound nature of the more–than–human.

"From the author of Apocalyptic Planet, an unsparing, vivid, revelatory travelogue through prehistory that traces the arrival of the First People in North America twenty thousand years ago and the artifacts that enable us to imagine their lives and fates. Scientists squabble over the locations and dates for human arrival in the New World. The first explorers were few, encampments fleeting. At some point in time, between twenty and forty thousand years...

Beyond what most people think about archaeology--with its cleanly numbered dates, and discoveries--lies a vibrant and controversial realm of scientists, thieves, and contested land claims. Here, naturalist and adventurer Childs explores the field's transgressions against the cultures it tries to preserve, and pauses to ask: To whom does the past belong? Written in his trademark lyrical style, this book carries readers directly into his adventures...