OPL BOOK SUMMARY:  In Islands of Abandonment, readers can take a journey to some of the most desolate places on Earth to discover where nature is thriving, pulling itself out of the wreckage man created.

From Scotland and Cypress…

Readers first travel to the wasteland in Scotland – known as the Five Sisters, West Lothian. There, they can behold nature slowly creeping back into the scarred mountains of shale waste from the 1860s. Then, readers soar to the 112-mile buffer zone in Cypress.  This area was a demilitarization zone between the Turkish and Greek troops from the 1970s through today. This Greenline, which has been abandoned by humans for decades, is now rich with wildlife. 

…to Chernobyl, Ukraine…

Flyn shares the aftermath of the nuclear winter in Chernobyl, Ukraine. This site has been off limits since 1986 due to unsafe radiation levels.  And yet, 76% of the area is now covered in forests. Nature invades the city, tearing up roads and buildings as it spreads and takes over.  This area will continue to be abandoned wilderness for another 270 years, until radiation levels are safe enough for humans to inhabit again.  

…to downtown Detroit.

Finally, Flyn takes the reader to the streets of Detroit.  Once the fourth largest city, Detroit is now an empty shell, too big for its inhabitants. An area larger than Manhattan is vacant.  Whole streets are abandoned, grass grows freely, and vines creep up crumbling murals of neglected buildings.  Urban gardens are carefully tended by its remaining inhabitants.  The reader is left to ponder how nature and its people can find a way out of this complex situation.

Through Flyn’s eyes, readers witness the power and beauty of nature in areas previously destroyed by war and industrial poisons.  When given space to grow, nature will (and does!) heal and reform even in the most desolate and inhospitable of places.  This book is beautiful, heartbreaking, and cautiously optimistic.  It proves that nature can successfully recover and heal itself from man’s wreckage if given the time to do so.

Available used at BetterWorldBooks.