Migrations

Yes I like this one. It's a "boring" book, slow and a bit repetitive. It's, among other things, about the sea, about birds, and about wanting to die, like the birds are dying.

It's a world that is almost realistic. I don't know if people can really swim so far and so fast and survive such cold water, but it doesn't sound completely implausible that these people can. Or if that one injury scene makes sense. No idea.

But the big thing is extinction. All animals are dying. The sea is mostly empty. One character says that rats and cockroaches will probably survive. But seagulls are gone, and crows are declared extinct. Crows? Really? I can't believe that crows will die before humans. (Also, I watched a documentary that said octopuses thrive because sharks are getting fewer.) But I don't have to. That's just what this book world is like, and I don't mind.

There's a lot of cold weather and frustrating relationships and life going wrong.

Beautifully written and very moving. Among other things, it's a psychological thriller and an adventure story (i.e., following some of the remaining Arctic terns on their migration to Antarctica). Despite the book's restless, haunted narrator and its focus on mass extinction, it did not leave me feeling bleak. It raises important questions about what humans owe to the creatures with whom we share the planet, and those concerns are presented in an energizing way.

There are a lot of memorable, thought-provoking passages. For example, this one really jumped out at me: "I think of the impact of a life like that. It sounds quiet, and so small as to be invisible. ... But I know better than that. A life's impact can be measured by what it gives and what it leaves behind, but it can also be measured by what it steals from the world."

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I did about 50-50 reading and listening to the audiobook, and the narration by Barrie Kreinik was great.

I don't want to say too much about the lessons here since it might veer a bit too close to spoiler territory, but there's a really nice build up in the way that it flits through timelines. There's a weaving of a picture of a woman coming to grips with the question of nature or nurture, looking for a way to gain closure in something she has no control over, the migratory path of a bird. A heavy read but well worth it in what you get from it.