An account, at moments visionary, of the difficult and contested relation between nature and people now: in the centuries-long attempt to subdue it, the human being is losing real contact with it and risks being overwhelmed — by its fury when it is not respected, and by its beauty, whether that beauty is majestic or only whispered.

“The sense is that nature watches us sideways, perhaps indifferent to our fate, but that it still offers us a hold, throwing us a lifebelt in a rough sea.”