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9781441782120

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Wise and impassioned, Connors' unique perspective... illuminates the joys of solitude and the complicated nature of life in a volatile, untamable environment. -- Booklist Connors proffers an ecological manifesto for making our peace with fire. More importantly, he offers a profound (and at times hilariously profane) perspective on the relationship between humans and the earth. -- BookPage What a wonderful book. Philip Connors went up to the mountaintop to serve as a lookout--and he has come down with a masterwork of close observation, deep reflection, and hard-won wisdom. This is an unforgettable reckoning with the American land. -- Philip Gourevitch, former editor of Paris Review Reading this book is like taking a vacation in beautiful scenery with an observant and clever guide. So relax and enjoy. -- Associated Press One of the most elegant ruminations about the wilderness and the rugged West to emerge in quite some time. -- NPR Finely, wryly, at times poetically wrought...Connors has succeeded in weaving many stories into one...But it's what he calls 'the drama of the self' that most distinguishes Fire Season-the drama inherent in a solitary existence amid 'a landscape prone to burn, ' but also the drama of a writer alone before his typewriter finding a voice and new literary life in arid terrain. -- New York Times Book Review An urgent, clear, bright book; it is both lyrical enough to arrest breath and absolutely compelling, reminding us why we need fire, solitude, wilderness. -- Alexandra Fuller, New York Times bestselling author Between tales of sweeping out rat droppings from the two-room cabin or flyfishing by moonlight or describing the environmental issues of fire suppression, former Wall Street Journal copy editor Connors deftly weaves his personal story and shares the joys of working solo five months each year as a US Forest Service wilderness lookout...Narrator Sean Runette brings Connors' writing alive...Highly recommended for adults and older teens. -- Library Journal (starred audio review) Connors introduces us to his wilderness in this ruminative, lyrical, occasionally suspenseful account that bristles with the narrative energy and descriptive precision of Annie Dillard and dovetails between elegiac introspection and a history of his curious and lonely occupation. -- Publishers Weekly [A] lyrical, masterly debut from a first-class writer. -- Men's Journal A quirky meditation on the lonely pleasures of summers in a seven-by-seven-foot lookout tower in a particularly wild patch of the Southwest...A quietly moving love letter to a singular place. -- Los Angeles Times Excellent, informative, and delightful. -- Annie Proulx, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Narrator Sean Runnette provides a relaxed reading that emphasizes the Zen qualities of the job. The resulting audiobook should appeal to armchair rangers. -- AudioFile

Wise and impassioned, Connors' unique perspective... illuminates the joys of solitude and the complicated nature of life in a volatile, untamable environment. -- Booklist Connors proffers an ecological manifesto for making our peace with fire. More importantly, he offers a profound (and at times hilariously profane) perspective on the relationship between humans and the earth. -- BookPage Connors introduces us to his wilderness in this ruminative, lyrical, occasionally suspenseful account that bristles with the narrative energy and descriptive precision of Annie Dillard and dovetails between elegiac introspection and a history of his curious and lonely occupation. -- Publishers Weekly What a wonderful book. Philip Connors went up to the mountaintop to serve as a lookout--and he has come down with a masterwork of close observation, deep reflection, and hard-won wisdom. This is an unforgettable reckoning with the American land. -- Philip Gourevitch, former editor of Paris Review Reading this book is like taking a vacation in beautiful scenery with an observant and clever guide. So relax and enjoy. -- Associated Press One of the most elegant ruminations about the wilderness and the rugged West to emerge in quite some time. -- NPR [A] lyrical, masterly debut from a first-class writer. -- Men's Journal A quirky meditation on the lonely pleasures of summers in a seven-by-seven-foot lookout tower in a particularly wild patch of the Southwest...A quietly moving love letter to a singular place. -- Los Angeles Times Finely, wryly, at times poetically wrought...Connors has succeeded in weaving many stories into one...But it's what he calls 'the drama of the self' that most distinguishes Fire Season-the drama inherent in a solitary existence amid 'a landscape prone to burn, ' but also the drama of a writer alone before his typewriter finding a voice and new literary life in arid terrain. -- New York Times Book Review An urgent, clear, bright book; it is both lyrical enough to arrest breath and absolutely compelling, reminding us why we need fire, solitude, wilderness. -- Alexandra Fuller, New York Times bestselling author Excellent, informative, and delightful. -- Annie Proulx, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Narrator Sean Runnette provides a relaxed reading that emphasizes the Zen qualities of the job. The resulting audiobook should appeal to armchair rangers. -- AudioFile Between tales of sweeping out rat droppings from the two-room cabin or flyfishing by moonlight or describing the environmental issues of fire suppression, former Wall Street Journal copy editor Connors deftly weaves his personal story and shares the joys of working solo five months each year as a US Forest Service wilderness lookout...Narrator Sean Runette brings Connors' writing alive...Highly recommended for adults and older teens. -- Library Journal (starred audio review)

Author Information

Philip Connors was born in Iowa, grew up on a farm in Minnesota, and studied journalism at the University of Montana. Beginning in 1999 he worked at the Wall Street Journal, mostly as an editor on the leisure and arts page. In 2002 he left New York to become a fire lookout in New Mexico's Gila National Forest, where he has spent every summer since. That experience became the subject of his first book, the multiaward-winning Fire Season: Field Notes From a Wilderness Lookout. His second book, All the Wrong Places, a memoir of life in the shadow of his brother's suicide, was published in 2015 and selected as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of the year by Kirkus Reviews. He lives in the Mexican-American borderlands. Sean Runnette, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, has also directed and produced more than two hundred audiobooks, including several Audie Award winners. He is a member of the American Repertory Theater company and has toured the United States and internationally with ART and Mabou Mines. His television and film appearances include Two If by Sea, Cop Land, Sex and the City, Law & Order, the award-winning film Easter, and numerous commercials.

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