In the spring of 1983 Terry Tempest Williams learned that her mother was dying of cancer. That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come to gauge her life by. One event was nature at its most random, the other a by-product of rogue technology: Terry's mother, and Terry herself, had been exposed to the fallout of atomic bomb tests in the 1950s. As it interweaves these narratives of dying and accommodation, Refuge transforms tragedy into a document of renewal and spiritual grace, resulting in a work that has become a classic.
In the spring of 1983 Terry Tempest Williams learned that her mother was dying of cancer. That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come to gauge her life by. One event was nature at its most random, the other a by-product of rogue technology: Terry's mother, and Terry herself, had been exposed to the fallout of atomic bomb tests in the 1950s. As it interweaves these narratives of dying and accommodation, Refuge transforms tragedy into a document of renewal and spiritual grace, resulting in a work that has become a classic.
| ISBN-13: | 9780679740247 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 09/01/1992 |
| Edition description: | 1st Vintage Books ed |
| Pages: | 352 |
| Sales rank: | 46,334 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.14(w) x 7.96(h) x 0.76(d) |
Full Body Burden: The amount of radioactive material present in a human body that acts as an internal and ongoing source of radiation. Read our Q&A with Kristen Iversen, author of the Summer 2012 Discover Great New Writers pick Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats, here.
