Adam Weymouth is a freelance journalist who has written for a broad range of newspapers and magazines including the Guardian, The Atlantic and the BBC. Adam lives on a narrowboat in London.
Kings of the Yukon: One Summer Paddling Across the Far North
Hardcover
$27.00
- ISBN-13: 9780316396707
- Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
- Publication date: 05/15/2018
- Pages: 288
- Sales rank: 432,752
- Product dimensions: 6.50(w) x 1.50(h) x 9.50(d)
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One man's thrilling and transporting journey by canoe across Alaska in search of the king salmon
The Yukon river is 2,000 miles long, the longest stretch of free-flowing river in the United States. In this riveting examination of one of the last wild places on earth, Adam Weymouth canoes along the river's length, from Canada's Yukon Territory, through Alaska, to the Bering Sea. The result is a book that shows how even the most remote wilderness is affected by the same forces reshaping the rest of the planet.
Every summer, hundreds of thousands of king salmon migrate the distance of the Yukon to their spawning grounds, where they breed and die, in what is the longest salmon run in the world. For the communities that live along the river, salmon was once the lifeblood of the economy and local culture. But climate change and a globalized economy have fundamentally altered the balance between man and nature; the health and numbers of king salmon are in question, as is the fate of the communities that depend on them.
One man's thrilling and transporting journey by canoe across Alaska in search of the king salmon
Travelling along the Yukon as the salmon migrate, a four-month journey through untrammeled landscape, Adam Weymouth traces the fundamental interconnectedness of people and fish through searing and unforgettable portraits of the individuals he encounters. He offers a powerful, nuanced glimpse into indigenous cultures, and into our ever-complicated relationship with the natural world. Weaving in the rich history of salmon across time as well as the science behind their mysterious life cycle, Kings of the Yukon is extraordinary adventure and nature writing at its most urgent and poetic.
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2018-02-20
An analysis of the long history and perilous future of king salmon as well as an assessment of how the fish's vitality directly correlates to that of Alaska as a whole.Given the subtitle of the book, readers could be forgiven for expecting a straightforward travelogue. While that's certainly part of it—debut author and London-based environmental writer Weymouth canoed roughly 2,000 miles down the famed Yukon River, "the longest salmon run in the world"—the narrative is largely about the fish itself and the people in the villages along the way who rely on it for sustenance, physically and economically. The king salmon is undoubtedly in decline, in both sheer numbers and average poundage. Many readers will assume that climate change is to blame, but the author discovered that the real reasons are much more complicated and go all the way back to the discoveries of gold and oil, when the wild Alaskan frontier became more commercialized and domesticated. Throughout the book, Weymouth introduces us to a memorable cast of colorful characters, including numerous Native families and some reality TV stars (the author posits, only half-jokingly, that Alaska has more per capita than any other state). Readers will also encounter a number of lively history lessons of salmon, the Native peoples of Alaska, and the state itself. As he writes, "the history of the salmon is the history of this land….[The Yukon] intimately connected the lives of a Tlingit Indian at the river's source and a Yupik Eskimo on Alaska's coast, two thousand miles away, even before these people were aware of each other's existence. It is a link to peoples' ancestors and their hope for their children's children."In this timely story "of relationships, of the symbiosis of people and fish, of the imprint that one leaves on the other," Weymouth keeps the pages turning to the very end.
Kirkus Reviews
2018-02-20An analysis of the long history and perilous future of king salmon as well as an assessment of how the fish's vitality directly correlates to that of Alaska as a whole.Given the subtitle of the book, readers could be forgiven for expecting a straightforward travelogue. While that's certainly part of it—debut author and London-based environmental writer Weymouth canoed roughly 2,000 miles down the famed Yukon River, "the longest salmon run in the world"—the narrative is largely about the fish itself and the people in the villages along the way who rely on it for sustenance, physically and economically. The king salmon is undoubtedly in decline, in both sheer numbers and average poundage. Many readers will assume that climate change is to blame, but the author discovered that the real reasons are much more complicated and go all the way back to the discoveries of gold and oil, when the wild Alaskan frontier became more commercialized and domesticated. Throughout the book, Weymouth introduces us to a memorable cast of colorful characters, including numerous Native families and some reality TV stars (the author posits, only half-jokingly, that Alaska has more per capita than any other state). Readers will also encounter a number of lively history lessons of salmon, the Native peoples of Alaska, and the state itself. As he writes, "the history of the salmon is the history of this land….[The Yukon] intimately connected the lives of a Tlingit Indian at the river's source and a Yupik Eskimo on Alaska's coast, two thousand miles away, even before these people were aware of each other's existence. It is a link to peoples' ancestors and their hope for their children's children."In this timely story "of relationships, of the symbiosis of people and fish, of the imprint that one leaves on the other," Weymouth keeps the pages turning to the very end.