Islands of Abandonment

Starred review from April 12, 2021
Journalist Flyn (Thicker Than Water) travels to abandoned wilderness sites around the globe to study how ecosystems regrow in this riveting collection of essays. The world, Flyn writes, "has a great capacity for repair, for recovery, for forgiveness... if we can only learn to let it do so." In "The Waste Land," Flyn argues that "eyesore sites" such as the industrial slag heaps of West Lothian, Scotland, present a new way of looking at nature in terms of "ecological virility" instead of beauty, as such sites are often biodiverse. "Unnatural Selection" highlights the rapidly evolving marine species in Arthur Kill, Staten Island, that have demonstrated "the ability to adapt to a befouled and ruinous world, and even thrive there," while "Alien Invasion" takes readers to Amani, Tanzania, to witness the havoc wrought on old-grown forests by invasive species introduced to the area by Europeans in the early 1900s. At each location—disputed territory in Cyprus, a village decimated by volcanic eruptions in Montserrat—Flyn finds redemption in the "new life springing from the wreckage of the old." Through lush and poetic language, she captures the vital forces at work in the natural world. This is nature writing at its most potent. Agent: Amelia Atlas, ICM Partners.

April 15, 2021
An exploration of the effects of abandonment in the world's desolate places. Investigative journalist Flyn takes readers to a fascinating variety of remote locales that humans have abandoned for various reasons, including natural disaster, war, economic collapse, and disease. As the author notes, in the early days of the current pandemic, reports began to surface of wildlife making forays into the empty urban streets, indicating how quickly nature can recover from human incursion. Flyn dives deeper, exploring the long-term effects of abandoned locations. In each location, she found similarities: "new life springing from the wreckage of the old, life all the stranger and more valuable for its resilience." With excitement and hope, the author celebrates a "stronghold" of endangered Persian leopards that now roam the border between Iraq and Iran; points out that Estonia has gained thousands of square miles of reforestation since the fall of the Soviet Union; and notes that brown bears were recently spotted for the first time in Chernobyl following the disaster. Though enthusiastic, Flyn is not letting humans off easy for their mistakes. She offers eye-opening statistics about the irreparable damage humans have created and grim warnings if such activity continues. In addition to the ecological effects, Flyn also discusses the psychological damage abandonment has wrought on humans still in the area. Through interviews with current and former inhabitants, the author shows how their experiences have transformed the meaning of home. Some, as in Detroit, have assumed care for the derelict lots and houses in their neighborhoods. However, Flyn argues that "collective guilt" can have a negative environmental impact, explaining that humans often assume that they know what is best for damaged habitats, resulting in overtreatment. She encourages all of us to exercise restraint, as "absence of man is often all the stimulus required to restart the resurrection." A compelling reflection on the extraordinary healing power of nature when it is left to its own devices.

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Starred review from June 1, 2021

In this strangely beautiful work of nature writing, investigative journalist Flyn (Thicker Than Water) explores 12 places "bent and broken, despoiled and desolate, polluted and poisoned" in order to see how nature reclaims abandoned spots, and to witness the enduring ecological effects of human activities. Her itinerary includes derelict industrial sites, such as West Lothian in Scotland, war zones like Verdun in France, and sites of manmade or natural disasters, including Chernobyl in Ukraine. Though the tension is palpable, Flyn's narrative voice remains calm, even as she ignores prohibitory signs, crawls under barbed wire, sloshes around in toxic muck, or spelunks in abandoned structures. Visiting places where nature is flourishing in our absence, she captures searing images of both waste and regeneration. Flyn presents a balanced approach to her subject; she carefully avoids venturing too far into disaster tourism and instead considers the psychological and sociological implications of urban decay. She concludes by stressing the redemptive possibilities of feral ecosystems and noting the ongoing impact of climate change on these locations. VERDICT With this absorbing mix of ecology, social history, and travel (even if for most readers, it'll be of the armchair sort), Flyn offers a hopeful way of seeing often-overlooked landscapes.--Robert Eagan, Windsor P.L., Ont.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2021
There are many places where humans once lived and now do not, whether due to war, natural disasters, or man-made calamities. Places such as Monserrat, buried under volcanic ash; or the WWI battlefields of Verdun, France, where a thumbprint of land bereft of life is a reminder of all who were lost; or block after block of derelict buildings in once vibrant downtown Detroit. And then, of course, there is Chernobyl, a notorious example of the failure of mankind to realize what kind of monster it attempts to harness in pursuit of nuclear energy. Brave, unflinching, and keenly observant, journalist Flyn traveled the globe, from Tanzania to Cyprus, Estonia to Staten Island to uncover these islands of abandonment and gauge the Earth's and humanity's ability to find resurrection in the aftermath of disaster. And she does find rebirth in these unlikely places, cataloguing the miracle of flora and fauna sprouting from toxic landscapes, a reassurance that there is an "astonishing fortune of living in such a vast and endlessly forgiving world." Flyn writes with the soul of a poet and the eye of a painter, evoking the beauty and the horror to be found in decimated places that, through abandonment, invited the most tenacious and patient forms of life to survive and revive.

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