With an eloquence unmatched by any living writer, Verlyn Klinkenborg observes the juncture at which our lives and the natural world intersect. His yearlong meditation on the rigors and wonders of country life--encompassing memories of his family's Iowa homestead, time spent in the wide open spaces of the American West, and his experiences on the small farm in upstate New York where he lives with his wife--abounds with vicarious pleasures for the reader as it indelibly records and celebrates the everyday beauty of the world we inhabit....

Few writers have attempted to explore the natural history of a particular animal by adopting the animal’s own sensibility. But Verlyn Klinkenborg has done just that in Timothy: an insightful and utterly engaging story of the world’s most famous tortoise, whose real life was observed by the eighteenth-century English curate and naturalist Gilbert White. For thirteen years, Timothy lived in White’s garden. Here Klinkenborg gives the tortoise an unforgettable voice and keen powers of observation on both human and natural affairs. Wry and wise, unexpectedly moving and enchanting at every–careful–turn, Timothy surprises and delights....