Cal Flyn's The Savage Landscape is an extraordinary exploration of wilderness and its meaning, taking readers from the ocean floor to volcanic peaks. The book examines places often considered empty or barren, revealing abundant life both human and nonhuman.
Flyn's journey includes a visit to geothermal nurseries off the coast of California, where thousands of pearl octopuses gather around hydrothermal springs. She also travels to the Brazilian rainforest to meet the Yanomami people, and to Transylvania, home to Europe's largest brown bear population, where she explores human-wildlife conflict.
The author challenges the notion of untouched wilderness, highlighting that such places are often a fiction. At a monastery in Egypt's eastern desert, a monk checks his smartphone; in Antarctica, tourist and research clutter mars the landscape. Flyn argues that the idea of wilderness as 'untrammelled by man' is a pernicious fallacy, often used to dispossess Indigenous peoples.
Throughout the book, Flyn's prose evokes wonder, describing a whale fall on the seafloor as 'simmering with life'. Her personal connection to wild places, which provided solace after her father's death, adds depth to this carnival of a book.
