From the New York Times–bestselling author of Leave It As It Is and All the Wild that Remains comes a timely meditation on the modern-day lessons of Henry David Thoreau.

When the pandemic struck, nature writer David Gessner turned to Thoreau, the original social distancer, for lessons on how to live. Those lessons—of learning our own backyard, rewilding, loving nature, self-reliance, and civil disobedience—hold a secret that could help save us as we face the greater crisis of climate.

From his writing shack in Wilmington, North Carolina, Gessner revisits Thoreau during the height of the pandemic, when the planet’s air and water became cleaner due to lack of travel, and citi-zens flooded the streets in uprisings for Black lives.

In the coming months and years, after the pandemic has subsided and the climate crisis intensifies, how will we make sense of these events? What stories will we tell about where we are now, where we are going, and how we have changed?

In Quiet Des-peration, Savage Delight: Sheltering with Thoreau in the Age of Crisis, Gessner begins answering these crucial questions with guidance and inspiration from activists, scientists, colleagues, writers, artists, fam-ily, and friends—and the singular life and work of Henry David Thoreau