ABOUT NATURE OBSCURA: A CITY’S HIDDEN NATURAL WORLD
With wonder and a sense of humor, Nature Obscura author Kelly Brenner aims to help us rediscover our connection to the natural world that is just outside our front door — we just need to know where to look.
Through explorations of a rich and varied urban landscape, Brenner reveals the complex micro-habitats and surprising nature found in the middle of a city. In her hometown of Seattle, which has plowed down hills, cut through the land to connect fresh- and saltwater, and paved over much of the rest, she exposes a diverse range of strange and unknown creatures. From shore to wetland, forest to neighborhood park, and graveyard to backyard, Brenner uncovers how our land alterations have impacted nature, for good and bad, through the wildlife and plants that live alongside us, often unseen. These stories meld together, in the same way our ecosystems, species, and human history are interconnected across the urban environment.
“A love song to Seattle’s wild places, but also a guide of use to anyone in an urban setting who wants to know more about birds and animals–and to use that knowledge in their own lives. Beautiful, passionate, and practical.”
—Jeff VanderMeer, author of the Southern Reach Trilogy
“With observant eyes and beautiful prose, Kelly Brenner draws us all into the hidden depths of the urban wilderness. Hummingbirds, dragonflies, ferns, and even slime molds come to vibrant
life alongside stories of the humans who keep watch over the nature that surrounds us. Nature Obscura inspires everyday wonder, adventure, and wisdom about our changing earth.”
—Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of Mozart’s Starling and Crow Planet
“A warm-hearted meditation on the natural wonders that we city dwellers overlook every day, such as the western pondhawk (a dragonfly), licorice ferns, and the charming Anna’s hummingbird, her heart beating 1,250 times a minute—and the perhaps less charming ant-decapitating fly and, yes, Fuligo septima, a.k.a., dog-vomit slime mold . . . Once you read this book you’ll step more carefully, to avoid damaging the myriad tiny worlds that add color and texture to our world.”
—Erik Larson, author of The Splendid and the Vile
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