Thin Places (Paperback)

Staff Reviews

Thin Places is a rich combination of memoir, nature writing and history examining the way borders--constructed and natural, visible and unseen—can shape a life, and how the tug of landscape and our connectedness to a place informs our identity. In a series of achingly honest, deeply personal, vividly descriptive prose essays, Kerri ni Dochartaigh makes the connection between Ireland’s troubled history and her own traumatic past, and how ever-present violence changes you in countless, unknowable ways. There is a heavy darkness over much of this memoir--alongside the unspeakable horrors and enduring effects wrought by The Troubles are the author’s own personal stories of trauma and abuse and loss, of addiction and depression. So much sorrow here to contemplate, but also so much gorgeous, exuberant nature writing and so much hopeful wisdom—reflections on the process of healing, on seeking stillness, on resurfacing and reclaiming, on processing grief, on acceptance and letting go, and ultimately on finding a path forward to hope and healing by seeking solace in the mysteries and beauty of the natural world and spending time in its liminal spaces. Luminous and moving, eloquent and affecting, Ed loved and highly recommends!