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Thirst

In Search of Freshwater

The front cover of the book 'Thirst'.

Dive into the depths of a Berlin lake, journey from the Thames to the banks of the Nile, and meet Black Mary, the keeper of a lost seventeenth-century healing well in London.

With a foreword by celebrated writer Robert Macfarlane, this is an urgent, evocative collection of writings celebrating the source of all life: freshwater, our most precious resource.

Robin Wall Kimmerer observes a raindrop fall on a carpet of dry moss and asks what we can learn about community, resilience and living small from mosses, one of the earth’s oldest plants. Lucy Jones steps her way through nettles and willowherb to listen to the running river water near her home, cooling the heat of a busy mind. And Vandana Shiva campaigns for water justice – reminding us that we are all participants in the Earth’s water cycle.

Featuring 21 writers, including Rebecca Solnit, Ocean Vuong and Elif Shafak, this is a treasury of writings on hope for ecological abundance, desire, beauty – and restorative planetary justice.

These are the vital myths and memories that flow through water.

Authors

‘Thirst’ features a foreword by Robert Macfarlane with texts by Natalie Diaz, Rebecca Solnit, Elif Shafak, Vandana Shiva, Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, Lora Aziz, Ocean Vuong, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Jessica J Lee, Olivia Laing, Joycelyn Longdon, Raqs Media Collective, Georges Perec, Yasmine Hafez, Anthony Acciavatti, Karan Shrestha, Gaylene Gould, Lucille Clifton, Lucy Jones and Rumi.

Date published
Format
Paperback
Extent
176 pages
ISBN
9781999809058

About the contributor

A portrait of Robert Macfarlane looking and smiling directly at the camera. Robert sits in front of a body of water surrounded by green plants.

Robert Macfarlane

Robert Macfarlane is internationally renowned for his writing on nature, people and place. His bestselling, multi-award-winning books include 'Is a River Alive?', 'Underland', and 'The Lost Words'. He is a Fellow and Professor of Environmental Humanities at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2017 he was awarded the E.M. Forster Award for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.