A family’s story of flight and return, bounty and emptiness, and the meaning of home.
Winner of the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award
Highlighted by The New York Times “The Books That Explain California”
Selected for Nevada Reads 2021, Nevada’s statewide book club.
“Powerful…Reminds us to hold our loved ones close…[and] treat the land as sacred.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Few writers mange to capture the essence of the California that exists beyond the images typically offered up by film and television . . . Atleework’s assertive love letter to this geography paints a vivid picture of a place, and a family, that has weathered countless storms, fires, and cataclysms both large and small . . . Its elegant prose, deftly balanced narrative, and careful research are sure to make readers fall in love with Miracle Country.”
“Truly something special and refreshing…Whether you’re in it for the emotional roller coaster or want an armchair view of an area of California not on your radar, Miracle Country works on multiple levels. It reminds us to hold our loved ones close, conserve our resources, treat the land as sacred and stop putting our collective heads in the sand when it comes to climate change…what stands out in ‘Miracle Country’ is Atleework’s gorgeous prose matched equally by her deep-rooted sense of and appreciation for the place she has always called home. ”
“Kendra Atleework has written the most beautiful book about California I ever have read. The author locates the mystery and beauty of her life in the small town of Bishop, on the eastern slope of the Sierra, decades after Los Angeles has stolen the water. Her poet's prose, on every page, honors the dry land and breathes Nature to life.”
“Essayist Atleework recalls her family roots and explores the history of California’s arid Eastern Sierras in her ambitious, beautiful debut. Nearly two centuries of conflict over land, water, and individual rights flow through parallel stories…Atleework’s remarkable prose renders the ordinary wondrous and firmly puts this overlooked region of California onto the map.”
“Miracle Country is truly some kind of miracle, combining a moving family story with deft, deeply researched history. Written from the crucible of California's water wars, combined with a family story of love and loss in the high desert Eastern Sierra Nevada, Kendra Atleework's book joins the great American accounts of the West, a step beyond Joan Didion, moving from a beloved geography into a jeopardized future. Kendra Atleework is that rare writer—capable of heart-stopping memoir while performing a work of keen observation and serious history. A work of stunning acuity and candor, essential reading, already a classic narrative.”
“Atleework’s shimmering memoir is set in California’s Eastern Sierra, where water is never far from the minds of those living there…More than a work of environmental change or history of place, this is a love letter of sorts to Atleework’s mother. Her presence is felt in every page, and it is in the pursuit of peace amid her loss that ultimately brings Atleework home. A bittersweet tribute to home and family in breathtaking prose that will appeal to lovers of memoirs and history, as well as anyone who enjoys beautifully crafted writing.”
“A soaring homage to California and to the sparsely populated and drought-prone Eastern Sierra, where the author grew up. Blending family memoir and environmental history, Kendra Atleework conveys a fundamental truth: the places in which we live, live on—sometimes painfully—in us. This is a powerful, beautiful, and urgently important book.”
“This eloquent narrative is both a natural history of the author's home place, a seemingly arid region, and a loving portrait of an extraordinary family. Kendra Atleework has an uncanny wisdom and a deep sense of people and their origins, and she writes like an angel.”
“Can a book be both radiant with light and shadowy as midnight? Miracle Country can. I felt the thrill I once knew reading Annie Dillard for the first time. Kendra Atleework can really write. She flies with burning wings."
“Kendra Atleework’s radiant, wrenching memoir Miracle Country probes a home and its heartbreaks for meaning… Her work incorporates the words of Kevin Starr, Joan Didion, and Mary Austin, but remains separate—its own glorious, authentic picture of a place whose residents refuse to be pinned down. Miracle Country is a singular, sympathetic memoir of loss and belonging, set in a troubled state that still occupies so many people’s dreams.”
“Drawing parallels between her upbringing and the region's history, [Atleework's] memoir celebrates her home and the region while lovingly portraying her family's eccentricities. Her ability to relay naturalistic majesty in exquisite detail is dynamic yet tender, resulting in captivating storytelling… A breathtaking environmental history. Atleework is a shrewd observer and her writing is a gratifying contribution to the desert-literature genre.”
