Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx has presented a poetically engaging non-fiction book about wetlands and people. Based on childhood memories, she takes her readers on natural and cultural historical forays through the world’s lowlands, highlands and forest moors.
Her focus is on the moors of Northern Europe and America. In Europe, these ecosystems with their abundance of plants and animals have been populated since the Mesolithic. Using Doggerland as an example, Proulx describes how the residents adapted to the flooding of their habitat. In this way it draws a connection to the present and our lives in the face of climate change. With bog corpse finds, relics from the Varus Battle and quotes, it shows the cultural significance of the European moors.
In moving stories, Proulx describes the drainage of wet landscapes and the death of ecosystems and cultures, for example in North America. Occasionally she also takes us into strange tropical swamps.
Proulx’s Nature Writing is strong when she tells of the colorful brocade of the moor, the gurgling of the water and the cry of the bittern. Her book is a plea for the protection and preservation of global wetlands with their important role in climate protection. Despite the occasional jumps between times and continents, a wonderful invitation to immerse yourself in moorland history. Bettina Wurche
Annie Proulx
Moorland – a plea for an endangered landscape
Luchterhand, 256 pages, € 24,-
ISBN 978-3-630-87726-6