Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams is a poignant and powerful memoir that blends personal narrative with natural history, exploring the intersection of family, place, and environmental activism.
The book chronicles Williams’s experiences living in Utah during the 1980s and 1990s, a time of intense environmental turmoil, including the construction of a nuclear waste repository near her home in the Great Salt Lake. As she grapples with the loss of her mother to cancer and the impending destruction of her beloved landscape, Williams reflects on the interconnectedness of personal and environmental loss, and the ways in which grief can transform into activism.
Williams’s prose is lyrical and evocative, capturing the beauty and fragility of the natural world with a sense of awe and reverence. She weaves together stories of her family, her community, and the land itself, creating a tapestry of interconnectedness that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.
Refuge is a deeply moving and thought-provoking book that challenges readers to consider their own relationships with the natural world and the ways in which personal and environmental loss are intertwined. Williams’s unflinching honesty and poetic prose make this a book that lingers in the mind long after it is finished, inviting readers to contemplate the power of grief, the resilience of nature, and the importance of finding refuge in both the land and in each other.