Poet Kathleen Jamie brings a beautiful elegance to this semi-autobiographical series of essays about Scottish islands, whales, birds, and human histories. Every chapter is wonderfully constructed and tells another short story in an overarching narrative that is Jamie's view of the a small part of the story of humans. It is neither bleak nor hopeful, instead presented almost like an alien's poetic musings on a strange species.

What Jamie does best, however, is position the non-human. Avoiding the common pitfalls of anthropocentric nature writing, she manages to make a protagonist of homo sapiens but keeps them from chewing the scenery. Her handling of her craft of writing is magnificent throughout.