Book description
In the spring of 2007, hard on the heels of the worst winter in the
history of Juneau, Alaska, Lynn Schooler finds himself facing the far
side of middle age and exhausted by labouring to handcraft a home as his
marriage slips away. Seeking solace and escape in nature, he sets out on
a solo journey into the Alaskan wilderness, travelling first by small
boat across the formidable Gulf of Alaska, then on foot along one of the
wildest coastlines in North America.
Walking Home
is filled with stunning observations of the natural world, and rife with
nail-biting adventure as Schooler fords swollen rivers and eludes
aggressive grizzlies. But more important, it is a story about finding
wholeness-and a sense of humanity-in the wild. His is a solitary
journey, but Schooler is never alone; human stories people the
landscape-tales of trappers, explorers, marooned sailors, and hermits,
as well as the mythology of the region's Tlingit Indians. Alone in the
middle of several thousand square miles of wilderness, Schooler conjures
the souls of travellers past to learn how the trials of life may be
better borne with the help and community of others.
In Walking Home
Schooler creates a conversation between the human and the natural, the
past and present, and investigates, with elegance and soul, what it
means to be a part of the flow of human history. Lynn Schooler
is the critically acclaimed author of The Blue Bear
and The Last Shot
. He has lived in Alaska for almost forty years, working as a commercial
fisherman, shipwright, wilderness guide, and an award-winning wildlife
photographer.
