Coming into the Country - Couverture souple

'Both a memorial for, and testimony to, the awesome complexity of America's "ultimate wilderness".' - Robert Macfarlane

In this unforgettable and astutely observed travel account, Pulitzer Prize-winner John McPhee journeys into the wild frontiers and frigid climate of Alaska exploring the diverse terrain of this Northern US state. Travelling by foot and canoe, helicopter and dog team, McPhee traverses total wilderness, urban landscape, and the depths of the bush, drawing a rich and comprehensive history of this vast land and its varied inhabitants.

With his keen eye and poetic sensibility at the helm, we paddle with McPhee through the salmon-filled waters of the Brooks Range Rivers, meet a young chief of the Athapaskan tribe, and become well-acquainted with the habits of the barren-ground grizzly bear. We encounter settlers along the way and discover the extraordinary dreams that impel them to survive in one of the most remote regions on Earth.

McPhee is an endlessly curious adventurer and Coming into the Country is the work of a master storyteller.

John McPhee has published more than thirty books and much of his work first appeared in the pages of the New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1963. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, winning in 1999 for Annals of the Former World. McPhee teaches non-fiction writing at Princeton University.

Robert Macfarlane won the Guardian First Book Award, the Somerset Maugham Award, and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award for Mountains of the Mind. He is also the author of The Wild Places, The Old Ways, and most recently, Landmarks.