The Snow Geese - Softcover

"William Fiennes is a natural writer, with acute powers of observation. I very much liked the way he wove several ideas of what it means to travel home into the narrative, and in some curious way, all the chance meetings he had on his journey seemed to contribute to his larger design. It's an impressive debut." -- Richard Fortey, author of Life and Trilobite

"William Fiennes is a magician with language, a narrative genius, and one of the keenest and most lucid observers of birds -- and American culture, and human nature -- that I've read. This book is a shout-out-loud treasure." -- Rick Bass

"One page and I was hooked. Soon I was reading with a pen in hand, just to underline all the seamless transitions, the fresh surprising similes, the very exact and precise observations. Fiennes is a very fine writer and this book is pure delight." -- Peter Carey, author of the Booker Prize-winning The True History of the Kelly Gang

"Any story of migration is also an account of homecoming, and few are more eloquent or precise than this one. It serves as a good reminder that the world is a big place filled with small, particular, and incredibly interesting spots." -- Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

"Hundreds of thousands of white birds on a blue morning, heading north. William Fiennes, recovering from an illness, found following them, taking part in their answer to longing -- a healing thing to do. His story is vividly seen and said, and also healing. The Snow Geese is a sweet read, an adventure story and a compelling time-out from the troubles we're suffering." -- William Kittredge, author of The Nature of Generosity

"This is the best kind of writing, that draws one into an apparently familiar subject whose exquisite complexity was unsuspected. The Snow Geese is the most evocative and textured piece of nature and travel writing published in years. It rivals Barry Lopez's Arctic Dreams and in many ways surpasses it. It's a melodic and generous book that renews the tradition of British travel writing." -- Kevin Patterson, author of The Water in Between

"This is a work of passion and knowledge that goes right to the soul of far-flung places. Fiennes' evocation of the arctic is brilliant, deeply moving. He simply knows so much, observes the natural world with such elegant turn-of-mind, and writes so beautifully." -- Howard Norman, author of The Bird Artist

" The Snow Geese is an inspired work of natural history and a poetic meditation on leaving and homing, on wandering and belonging. With this beautiful, haunting debut, Fiennes joins that small, very special band of writer-explorers -- Emerson and Thoreau, Annie Dillard and Bruce Chatwin -- who give us another pair of eyes: he has renewed the variety and wonder of the world." -- Marina Warner

Every spring, millions of geese embark on an arduous three-thousand-mile migration from their winter quarters in the southern United States to their breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic. One year William Fiennes decided to go with them. Intrigued by what he'd read about the birds' amazing annual journey, Fiennes was also desperate to emerge from a period of illness and from the belief that, at age twenty-six, his life had ground to a halt.

The story of his voyage turns out to be about a great deal more than geese. A blend of memoir, natural history, and travel writing, The Snow Geese is also about homecoming: the birds on their long homeward journey north, the romance of homecomings, the urge to leave home and the even stronger need to return. The arc of Fiennes's extraordinary adventure is the backbone of a narrative rich in meditations on philosophy and natural science, and deeply perceptive in its descriptions of both physical and emotional travel.

Already being compared with Bruce Chatwin and Barry Lopez, William Fiennes is a gifted writer with a voice that is thoughtful, wry, and keenly observant. His book thrums with ideas, with stories and anecdotes, with humankind as well as with birds. The joy of being alive, of being on the move, and -- above all -- of returning home are poignantly captured in this intelligent, exuberant book, a debut of great delicacy and distinction.