The Snow Geese - Rilegato

"Mr. Fiennes's image of a shared journey . . . is informed by the age-old, near-universal belief in a profound link between mankind and nature. . . . He is wholehearted without quite taking himself seriously, and that is one of the qualities of this gifted author. He is lyrical, wry and sometimes lost: nights in a bleak North Dakota motel, weeks in the depressed Hudson Bay port of Churchill, waiting for the geese to pass over. He will not wink at us, but sometimes he winks at himself. . . . What greatly helps is prose so winged and acute at times that for a moment it establishes the mystical connection it aims for. . . . Traveling by mind and measurement, pursuing rival images of flight and home along with actual birds, the author evokes slow convalescence not just from being sick but, as Montaigne put it, from being alive." — The New York Times

"Auberon Waugh once said of John Updike that his writing made the reader 'quiver to be alive.' So it is with William Fiennes whose debut work The Snow Geese contains some of the most perfect similes and descriptive writing imaginable. He is a writers' writer and his lyrical, poetic account of a journey he took in 1999 following the migration of the snow geese from their winter quarters in the southern states of the US to their Arctic breeding grounds in Canada is a beautiful piece of prose that deserves to win awards." — Publishing News

“The Snow Geese is an inspired work of natural history and a poetic meditation on leaving and homing, on wandering and belonging. With this beautiful, haunting debut, Fiennes joins that small, very special band of writer-explorers — Emerson and Thoreau, Annie Dillard and Bruce Chatwin —who give us another pair of eyes: he has renewed the variety and wonder of the world.” — Marina Warner

“Fiennes’ evocation of the Arctic is brilliant, deeply moving. He simply knows so much, observes the natural world with such elegant turn-of-mind, and writes so beautifully.” — Howard Norman, author of The Bird Artist and Northern Tales

"One page and I was hooked. Soon I was reading with a pen in hand, just to underline all the seamless transitions, the fresh surprising similes, the very exact and precise observations. Fiennes is a very fine writer and this book is pure delight." — Peter Carey, author of the Booker Prize-winning True History of the Kelly Gang

"Hundreds of thousands of white birds on a blue morning, heading north. William Fiennes, recovering from an illness, found following them, taking part in their answer to longing — a healing thing to do. His story is vividly seen and said, and also healing. The Snow Geese is a sweet read, an adventure story and a compelling time-out from the troubles we're suffering." — William Kittredge, author of The Nature of Generosity

"This is the best kind of writing, that draws one into an apparently familiar subject whose exquisite complexity was unsuspected. The music with which Mr. Fiennes writes of the snow geese is rivalled only by the music of the geese themselves, the gracefulness of his writing by the gracefulness of their flight. I've hunted and stood among the great migrating flocks of these birds in the arctic and on the prairie and after reading Mr Fiennes I begin to grasp what I have seen, the extent of this beauty. The Snow Geese is the most evocative and textured piece of nature and travel writing published in years. It rivals Barry Lopez's Arctic Dreams and in many ways surpasses it. It's a melodic and generous book that renews the tradition of British travel writing." — Kevin Patterson

"Any story of migration is also an account of homecoming, and few are more eloquent or precise than this one. It serves as a good reminder that the world is a big place filled with small, particular, and incredibly interesting spots." — Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

William Fiennes has contributed to Granta, The London Review of Books, The Observer and the Times Literary Supplement. The Snow Geese is his first book and will be published in the UK and the US.