The Snow Geese - Hardcover

Fiennes, William

3.56

764 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0330375784 ISBN 13: 9780330375788

Publisher: Picador, 2002

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Snow geese spend their summers in the Canadian Arctic, on the tundra. Each autumn they migrate south, to Delaware, California and the Gulf of Mexico. In the spring they fly north again. William Fiennes decided to go with them and to write about his travels. What he produced turned out to be about very much more than geese. A blend of autobiography and reportage, its subject was also homecoming: the birds on their long journeys home, the grace of homecomings, the strange gravity that home exerts.

The arc of Fiennes' extraordinary physical adventure formed the backbone for meditations on philosophy, natural science and personal memoir. The book thrums with ideas, with stories and anecdotes, with humankind as well as wild fowl, with the funny and observant insights of an assured and highly entertaining writer. The joy of being alive, of being on the move and - above all - of returning home, is poignantly captured in this intelligent, exuberant book, a debut of great delicacy and distinction.

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Review:

Even without the unbridled enthusiasm of such writers as Peter Carey and Marina Warner that emblazon the jacket, a few pages of William Fiennes’ The Snow Geese would instantly alert the reader that this is something very special indeed. A remarkable piece of natural history and a striking book about the very notion of wandering, this is considerably more than travel writing; it is, in fact, a poetic vision that evokes the splendours and terrors of the Canadian Arctic in a fashion that goes beyond mere description. Perfectly judged prose gives a vision of the natural world that transports the reader utterly.

Snow geese spend each summer in the Canadian Arctic on the Tundra. Every autumn they migrate south to Delaware, California and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the spring they wing northwards again. Fascinated by this, William Fiennes made the decision to go with them and write about his travels. But the result turned out to be about so much more than the migration of geese. This synthesis of autobiography and reportage settles into its real subject swiftly: homecoming, and the powerful pull of the concept of home that motivates us all. The author’s daunting physical adventure is also a meditation on the philosophy of natural science and even the act of autobiography. The sheer energy of the book is mesmerising, and however subtle the writing, we read on transfixed--always relating these strange odysseys to our own travels in the world. The Snow Geese may change your very perception of what home means to you. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

... best writing... No one who reads it is likely to look at the world in the same way. -- TLS, April 2002

... quirky and autobiographical first book... capturing that sense of wonder... -- The Sunday Telegraph, March 24 2002

... superlative debut, delicate and profound and utterly readable. -- The Tablet, April 2002

A generosity of spirit... most attractive features... The playful interweaving... gives book its charm -- Independent A, April 2002

He is a writers' writer and his lyrical, poetic account of a journey... is a beautiful piece of prose that deserves to win awards. -- Roger Tagholm, Publishing News, 15 Feb 2002

Marvellous... entirely his own -- New Statesman, April 2002

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