The Age of Loneliness - by Laura Marris (Paperback)

About the Book

"In this debut essay collection, Laura Marris reframes environmental degradation by setting aside the conventional, catastrophic framework of the Anthropocene in favor of that of the Eremocene, the age of loneliness, marked by the dramatic thinning of wildlife populations and by isolation between and among species. She asks: how do we add to archives of ecological memory? How can we notice and document what's missing in the landscapes closest to us? Filled with equal parts alienation and wonder, each essay immerses readers in a different strange landscape of the Eremocene. Among them are the Buffalo airport with its snowy owls and the purgatories of commuter flights, layovers, and long-distance relationships; a life-size model city built solely for self-driving cars; the coasts of New England and the ever-evolving relationship between humans and horseshoe crabs; and the Connecticut woods Marris revisits for the first time after her father's death, where she participates in the annual Christmas Bird Count and encounters presence and absence in turn. Vivid, keenly observed, and driven by a lively and lyrical voice, The Age of Loneliness is a moving examination of the dangers of loneliness, the surprising histories of ecological loss, and the ways that community science which relies on the embodied evidence of 'ground truth'-can help us recognize, and maybe even recover, what we've learned to live"--

Book Synopsis

In this debut essay collection, Laura Marris reframes environmental degradation by setting aside the conventional, catastrophic framework of the Anthropocene in favor of that of the Eremocene, the age of loneliness, marked by the dramatic thinning of wildlife populations and by isolation between and among species. She asks: how do we add to archives of ecological memory? How can we notice and document what's missing in the landscapes closest to us?

Filled with equal parts alienation and wonder, each essay immerses readers in a different strange landscape of the Eremocene. Among them are the Buffalo airport with its snowy owls and the purgatories of commuter flights, layovers, and long-distance relationships; a life-size model city built solely for self-driving cars; the coasts of New England and the ever-evolving relationship between humans and horseshoe crabs; and the Connecticut woods Marris revisits for the first time after her father's death, where she participates in the annual Christmas Bird Count and encounters presence and absence in turn.

Vivid, keenly observed, and driven by a lively and lyrical voice, The Age of Loneliness is a moving examination of the dangers of loneliness, the surprising histories of ecological loss, and the ways that community science--which relies on the embodied evidence of "ground truth"--can help us recognize, and maybe even recover, what we've learned to live without.

Review Quotes

"Marris combines personal and natural history to potent effect, and the elegiac prose renders palpable the distance that modernity has placed between humans and the environment. Readers will be awed."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"A satisfyingly complex and profound collection."--Kirkus Reviews

"To read Marris is to find oneself not only in the hands of a lonely soul, but also in those of a dogged detective, an astute historian, and a keen forensic anthropologist. Marris brings her capacious mind and its longings to the page. . . . A lyricist of the highest order."--Lauren Markham, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Astonishing. . . . With equal parts research and reflection, these essays transpose landscapes of personal and shared loss to show how absence can be an opportunity for connection--both to a place and to the people who define and witness it." --Elaina Friedman, Chicago Review of Books

"An undeniably profound elucidation of losses. . . . [Marris's] approach counters the colonial, the destructive, the industrial. The Age of Loneliness holds up a reflection whereby we, too, grieve the sometimes invisible losses that we have been bequeathed." --Anita Felicelli, Los Angeles Times

"[Marris] has given us a model of expression, inquiry and attitude to begin to resist the normalization of our lonely disconnection from what has left and what is leaving."--Ron Slate, On the Seawall

"These are essays of exquisite beauty. The Age of Loneliness is an exploration of landscapes, interior and exterior, and the ways they become imprinted with both wounding and healing. As Marris reckons with the loneliness of late capitalism, what emerges is a work of love and connection."--Kathryn Savage

"In The Age of Loneliness, Laura Marris guides readers through specific ecological histories of absence-making: displacement, climate crisis, and the vanishing of species. 'The more a creature can tolerate, the more likely she is to end up alone in an increasingly hostile world, ' she observes of herself and of the wildlife around her. Marris' critique succeeds through its specifically dystopian details: horseshoe crabs decimated for fertilizer, birds pulverized by airplanes, 'words from the living world' dropped from The Oxford Junior Dictionary in favor of 'database, ' 'broadband, ' 'committee.' This thoroughly researched, passionate, and courageous autobiographical nonfiction debut also reminds us that even in Western New York State's long history of toxicity, even in Buffalo-Niagara's now-desolate Love Canal, we remain connected by quiet ecosystems of companionship and love."--Susan Howe

"The Age of Loneliness is a stunning book that will become a close friend, and like all good friends, it will change the shape of our world. Both personal and planetary, roving in its intelligence and deeply rooted in its lyrical observation, Laura Marris has managed that trickiest of feats: she brings the past into the present and reminds us that we're not yet alone. With prose that calls to mind the best in the tradition of nature writing, but with a voice which is also clearly, distinctly its own, Marris is the writer for our time." --Daegan Miller

"The Age of Loneliness is a gorgeous, poignant guide to finding one another in a time of loss."--Michelle Nijhuis, author of Beloved Beasts

"The Age of Loneliness calls to us from our era of extinction like a bird we thought we had lost. Laura Marris is a prophet whose patient song calls us to attention, to mercy, and finally, to each other."--Tomás Q. Morín

About the Author

Laura Marris is a writer and translator. She is a MacDowell fellow and the recipient of a Silvers Grant for Work in Progress. She teaches creative writing at the University at Buffalo.