Terry Tempest Williams roots her writing in the American West, deeply influenced by the arid landscape of her native Utah. Her work navigates themes of ecology, wilderness preservation, women's health, and the intricate relationship between culture and nature. Through her distinct prose, Williams weaves together personal narrative and environmental activism, offering readers profound reflections on our connection to the natural world. Her voice resonates with both urgency and beauty, compelling a deeper understanding of place and planet.
The author describes her Mormon upbringing, juxtaposing these reminiscences with discussions of the flooding of a wildlife bird sanctuary and its effect on that ecosystem, and her family's legacy of cancer
As a Mormon child, the author slept under the two outer panels of Bosch's Garden of Delights. After discovering the existence of the central panel in the Prado, she was drawn to write about her fascination with the entire triptych and the connections to her personal life, the "relationship with nature, the divide between religion and spirituality, and the question of how to preserve wilderness."--Booklist review.