Set in the North Shore suburbs of Chicago, amid traffic, pollution, and ever-spreading neighborhoods, these meditative personal essays explore the importance of our connection with the natural world, history, and memory. From the humming of cicadas on summer evenings and the seasonal migrations of ducks to the myriad hues in a green heron’s feathers, The Suburban Wild reveals a complex place in which wild geese and morning commuters share the same habitat. It explores how history—whether natural or cultural, collective or personal—shapes a landscape, and how human memory shapes that history. At heart, it seeks to forge a link between the world outside our windows and that inside.
“Thoughtful, well-written homage to the wilderness that survives in the suburbs north of Chicago. With Thoreauvian attentiveness. . . . Friederici practices natural history in a challenging setting and reaps unusual rewards.”
—Audubon
“Friederici’s approach is fresh and arresting. . . . close to poetry in its lyrical compression and imagery.”
—Chicago Tribune
Buy The Suburban Wild here.
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