by Craig Childs
Torrey House Press
5/27/2025, hardcover
SKU: 9798890920188
At a time when most people on Earth live in regions of acute light pollution, Craig Childs takes us on a journey to rediscover the awesome power of night itself.
Seeking not the absence of light, but the presence of the universe, master storyteller Craig Childs sets out to bike from the blinding lights of the Las Vegas Strip to one of the darkest spots in North America. A fearless explorer of both the natural world and the human imagination, Childs guides us on a quest to rediscover the heavens and to ask: "What does it do to us to not see the night sky?" The Wild Dark is at once an adventure story, a field guide, and a celebration of the awesome power of night itself, inviting us to look up and to look inward, eyes wide and sparkling with stars.
Reviews:
"Enchanting, mournful yet hopeful. Childs ruminates almost poetically on the ageless use of stellar navigation by all manner of species, from birds to grasshoppers to great human civilizations, and what happens to them when the stars disappear." -- Booklist, starred review
"Scientific and poetic, The Wild Dark conveys a galvanizing message: Light pollution is the simplest environmental damage to reverse. Just turn the lighting down, or off." -- Foreword Reviews, starred review
"A celebration of the night sky, a testament to how many people are disconnected from the darkness where the stars--used by our ancestors for navigation--shine brilliantly." -- Rebecca Solnit, No Straight Road Takes You There
About the Author:
Craig Childs has published more than a dozen critically acclaimed books, including The Secret Knowledge of Water, Atlas of a Lost World, Virga & Bone, and Tracing Time. Many of his books have won awards including Reading the West Book Award, Southwest Book of the Year, Foreword INDIES medalist, the Orion Book Award, and more. Childs lives in southwest Colorado.