Holy the Firm
- 8 Apr 2027
- 9781837266869
- £9.99
- 80 pp
- 129×198mm
- 7 Apr 2016
- 9781782117742
- £7.99
- 80 pp
In a few words
The Pulitzer Prize-winner’s profound exploration of the natural world, both its beauty and its cruelty, across two years of solitude spent on a North Pacific Ocean island
In a few words
The Pulitzer Prize-winner’s profound exploration of the natural world, both its beauty and its cruelty, across two years of solitude spent on a North Pacific Ocean island
A rare and precious book
A three-part metaphysical tour de force in 76 pages honed almost to the shape and intensity of a poem
A rare and precious book
A three-part metaphysical tour de force in 76 pages honed almost to the shape and intensity of a poem
More about
the book
‘One of the most prominent non-fiction writers of her generation’ GUARDIAN
Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillard lived alone for two years in a plain room on an island in Puget Sound, a deep inlet of the North Pacific Ocean. In her solitude – with only a window to look out of, a cat and a spider for company – she bears witness to the mysterious, mystical and mundane: a moth consumed in a candle flame, a seven-year-old girl burned in an aeroplane accident, a baptism on a cold beach.
Holy the Firm illuminates the power play behind the moving curtain of the everyday. It asks questions about time, reality, sacrifice and death. It is a profound and breathtaking book by one of the most influential figures in contemporary non-fiction.
INCLUDES AN EXCERPT FROM AN AMERICAN CHILDHOOD
More about
the book
‘One of the most prominent non-fiction writers of her generation’ GUARDIAN
Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillard lived alone for two years in a plain room on an island in Puget Sound, a deep inlet of the North Pacific Ocean. In her solitude – with only a window to look out of, a cat and a spider for company – she bears witness to the mysterious, mystical and mundane: a moth consumed in a candle flame, a seven-year-old girl burned in an aeroplane accident, a baptism on a cold beach.
Holy the Firm illuminates the power play behind the moving curtain of the everyday. It asks questions about time, reality, sacrifice and death. It is a profound and breathtaking book by one of the most influential figures in contemporary non-fiction.
INCLUDES AN EXCERPT FROM AN AMERICAN CHILDHOOD
Dillard's style is spirited and gale-force. She raps out her opinions; lyrical, gleeful, cymbal-clashing, peppery. The best thing is her glee, a pied-piperish glee at being in the world, which she evokes better than anyone else
Robert Macfarlane
Dillard opens our eyes to the world and to new ways of articulating what we see
Geoff Dyer
The trouble with hasty people like me is that we charge through our time on earth without noticing it. It was Annie Dillard who got me, before it was too late, to pay attention to where I was before I lost it. So I did. What abundance!
Richard Holloway
Annie Dillard is one of those people who seem to be more fully alive than most of us, more nearly wide-awake than human beings generally get to be
Dillard's style is spirited and gale-force. She raps out her opinions; lyrical, gleeful, cymbal-clashing, peppery. The best thing is her glee, a pied-piperish glee at being in the world, which she evokes better than anyone else
Robert Macfarlane
Dillard opens our eyes to the world and to new ways of articulating what we see
Geoff Dyer
The trouble with hasty people like me is that we charge through our time on earth without noticing it. It was Annie Dillard who got me, before it was too late, to pay attention to where I was before I lost it. So I did. What abundance!
Richard Holloway
Annie Dillard is one of those people who seem to be more fully alive than most of us, more nearly wide-awake than human beings generally get to be
Annie Dillard
View profileAnnie Dillard (1945-2026) was born in Pennsylvania. She was a much-celebrated poet, novelist and essayist and author of thirteen books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. She was a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters and received fellowship grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. She was awarded the 2014 National Humanities Medal for her work deepening the understanding of the human experience.
Annie Dillard
View profileAnnie Dillard (1945-2026) was born in Pennsylvania. She was a much-celebrated poet, novelist and essayist and author of thirteen books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. She was a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters and received fellowship grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. She was awarded the 2014 National Humanities Medal for her work deepening the understanding of the human experience.
