These essays, by an exciting new voice in nature writing, combine the objectivity of a field notebook and the subjectivity of personal memoir. Tracing the subtle connections and tensions between wilderness and human culture, Deming explores our need for a place within the natural world. Inspired by four loved places - the northeast woods of her childhood, a remote Canadian island off the eastern seaboard, southeast Alaska, and the American southwest - the essays trace one woman's journey in search of a spiritual home. Throughout her sojourns in "temporary homelands," Deming reflects on natural harmony and the discord with the natural world that our culture has created.