Publication Date: 06/06/2024 ISBN: 9781786581440 Category: Tag:

Late Light

Michael Malay

Publisher: Bonnier Books Ltd
Publication Date: 06/06/2024 ISBN: 9781786581440 Category: Tag:
Paperback / Softback

Mr B's review

I’m going to remember the feeling of this book every time the sun sets. It captures the bittersweet, heart-breaking fear of losing something beautiful that you have only just grasped.

Michael was born in Indonesia and moved to Australia as a young boy. When he moved to Bristol to study English literature as a young man, the country was alien to him. Lonely and saddened by the grey landscape he had moved to, he took heart in the company and enthusiasm of a new group of friends. These friends introduced him to the natural world and taught him a curiosity and power to notice that he had never experienced before. The windswept dull edges of the river severn, seemingly empty rivers, dark countryside at night, and the human-sculpted landscape of urban Bristol revealed biodiversity he couldn’t believe.

Over the years he became fascinated by four species groups: eels, moths, mussels and crickets. He discovered them though befriending experts, visiting their habitats and helping to survey these animals that are disappearing faster than we can find them. Through the history of these animals, he learns about our distinctly British culture and also reflects on his own life and sense of belonging: migration, adaptation, misunderstanding.

Michael’s writing is poetic and kind. He notices and appreciates that which can be easily overlooked and this book glows with a love for both the natural world and our place within it. – Katrina

Description

WINNER OF THE 2024 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE
WINNER OF THE 2023 RICHARD JEFFERIES AWARD FOR NATURE WRITING

‘Inspirational’ – THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE
‘A bright, fierce hope for the future’ – THE IRISH TIMES
‘An astonishing read’ – AMY LIPTROT
‘Irresistible’ – SARA BAUME
‘Will leave you aching with world-love’ – ABI ANDREWS
‘Simply mesmerising’ – JESSICA J. LEE
‘A tender, marvellous book’ – NICK HUNT

This is a book about falling in love with vanishing things

Late Light is the story of Michael Malay’s own journey, an Indonesian Australian making a home for himself in England and finding strange parallels between his life and the lives of the animals he examines. Mixing natural history with memoir, this book explores the mystery of our animal neighbours, in all their richness and variety. It is about the wonder these animals inspired in our ancestors, the hope they inspire in us, and the joy they might still hold for our children.

Late Light is about migration, belonging and extinction. Through the close examination of four particular ‘unloved’ animals – eels, moths, crickets and mussels – Michael Malay tells the story of the economic, political and cultural events that have shaped the modern landscape of Britain.

For readers of Robert Macfarlane, Raynor Winn and Helen Macdonald, Late Light is a rich blend of memoir, natural history, nature writing, and a meditation on being and belonging, from a vibrant new voice.

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