Desert Solitaire

Hailed by The New York Times as “a passionately felt, deeply poetic book,” Desert Solitaire is the moving autobiographical work of author Edward Abbey, considered the Thoreau of the American West. The book details the unique adventures and conflicts the author faces, from dealing with the damage caused by the development of the land or excessive tourism to discovering a dead body. However Desert Solitaire is not just a collection of one man’s stories, the book is also a philosophical memoir, full of Abbey’s reflections on the desert as a paradox, at once beautiful and liberating, but also isolating and cruel. Often compared to Thoreau’s Walden, Desert Solitaire is a powerful discussion of life’s mysteries set against the stirring backdrop of the American Southwest wilderness.