Islands of Abandonment
Life in the Post-Human Landscape
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Islands of Abandonment
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Narrated by:
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Cal Flyn
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By:
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Cal Flyn
About this listen
THE SUNDAY TIMES’ BESTSELLER AND SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR
WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT CONSERVATION AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH ACADEMY BOOK PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE
This is a book about abandoned places: ghost towns and exclusion zones, no man’s lands and fortress islands – and what happens when nature is allowed to reclaim its place.
In Chernobyl, following the nuclear disaster, only a handful of people returned to their dangerously irradiated homes. On an uninhabited Scottish island, feral cattle live entirely wild. In Detroit, once America’s fourth-largest city, entire streets of houses are falling in on themselves, looters slipping through otherwise silent neighbourhoods.
This book explores the extraordinary places where humans no longer live – or survive in tiny, precarious numbers – to give us a possible glimpse of what happens when mankind’s impact on nature is forced to stop. From Tanzanian mountains to the volcanic Caribbean, the forbidden areas of France to the mining regions of Scotland, Flyn brings together some of the most desolate, eerie, ravaged and polluted areas in the world – and shows how, against all odds, they offer our best opportunities for environmental recovery.
By turns haunted and hopeful, this luminously written world study is pinned together with profound insight and new ecological discoveries that together map an answer to the big questions: what happens after we’re gone, and how far can our damage to nature be undone?
‘A haunting look at how nature fights back … Beautiful, evocative’ SUNDAY TIMES
©2021 Cal Flyn (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
‘Extraordinary … Just when you thought there was nowhere left to explore, along comes an author with a new category of terrain – not scenes where man has never trod, but places where he has been and gone … Dazzling’
Spectator
‘Exhilarating … A story of the extraordinary resilience of life in some of the most desolate, ravaged and polluted landscapes on earth’
Daily Telegraph
‘Fascinating and brain-energising. It is full of detail and colour that sends one googling, to look up pictures and find out more. It is also an optimistic book … I’ll cling to that bit of unfashionable hope’
The Times
‘Brave, thorough … The result is fascinating, eerie and strange … There is some thrilling writing here, a fine way with the telling detail, and a plea for radical revisioning of what we mean by “nature” and “wild”’
Kathleen Jamie, New Statesman
‘Consistently rewarding, eloquently provocative … a brave book, in more ways than one’
New Humanist
‘Scintillating … she writes beautifully … Flyn's research is meticulous, but what makes the book so extraordinary is the originality of her thought’
The Herald
‘A thoughtful, fascinating read’
Independent
‘Brilliant … Flyn paints vivid pictures … both clear and compelling’
Daily Telegraph, five stars
‘Filled with understanding and adventure … Written with a beautiful attention to detail and a generous and imaginative frame of mind. The wonderful and surprising thing is how much reassurance and sense of possibility comes out of it at every turn’
Adam Nicolson
‘Certainly a book of the year for me’ Sebastian Faulks
‘Cal Flyn takes us on a mercurial expedition into the strange lands of human surrender … Thoughtful, careful, fascinating, poignant, mysterious, surreal, compelling, pace pitch-perfect. I could go on … and on’
Keggie Carew, author of Dadland
What listeners say about Islands of Abandonment
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mr
- 24-09-21
Fabulous read
Wonderful mix of taking us to far off places, thought provoking science, ethics and plenty of rays of hope
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- P. J. Morey
- 14-02-23
Compelling and eerie
This book draws you into the abandoned spaces that surround us with great detail and a haunting sense of travelling with the author on her journeys. A fascinating exploration by Cal Flyn who reads her book beautifully. This book will appeal to fans of “Underland”by Robert MacFarlane.
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- Christina
- 11-07-23
A perfect audiobook.
I enjoyed everything about this book; the various subjects, the history, the ecological data, the social context, the illustrative descriptions. Read calmly and enjoyably.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-06-23
Incredible performance!
Such an interesting listen, loved every second of it. Amazing narration, very calm and reflective.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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- Oliver De Cet
- 25-03-22
Great book, not so great narration
If you can get over the very flat performance, the book is extremely interesting and covers a lot of different ground. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 26-03-24
objective discussion
very well written and balanced view of where we are, no sensationalism a pragmatic review of the planet, the parasite and the potential for cure
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- JL Levin
- 09-02-22
essential reading/listening
a raft of factual information presented as stories that are difficult to put down and are fascinating. What we are doing to our planet and how nature fights back.
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- Priya from Scotland
- 20-07-22
an intriguing and thought provoking work t
this doesn't disappoint and performed v well by the author. I learned a lot about specifics that will lead to further investigation 🔎
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- Mr Marmaduke Crinkleberry
- 02-11-24
Astoundingly Good
Absolutely fascinating from start to finish. I learned of ao many abandoned or contaminated places in this book. It is like nothing else I have heard. Great to hear narration by the author too
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Tony
- 29-01-21
A Must Read
Yes indeed. A must read for anyone whose concerned at the future of the planet.
Flyn's book is exceptionally well written. It is also one which even whilst surveying some of the sites of desolation around the world, strikes an optimistic perspective on our potential futures.
I'm also pleased I bought the audio version, since Flyn reads her text well and with passion.
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5 people found this helpful