On Trails
An Exploration of the Wisdom in Nature - The New York Times Bestseller
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On Trails
Pre-order Now for £14.00
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Narrated by:
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By:
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Robert Moor
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A globe-spanning adventure through history, philosophy, science, nature and travel writing to discover how trails – from the miniscule to the massive – help us understand the world around us.
From the dawn of animal life to the digital era and on every scale of life, from microscopic cells to herds of elephants, we can be found relying on trails. While thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, Robert Moor began to wonder about those paths and set off travelling the globe to explore trails of all kinds.
Weaving together history, philosophy, science, nature and travel writing, On Trails reveals how the oft-overlooked trail sheds new light on a wealth of age-old questions: How does order emerge out of chaos? How did animals first crawl forth from the seas and spread across continents? How has humanity’s relationship with nature and technology shaped world around us? And, ultimately, how does each of us pick a path through life?
We join Moor as he hikes through unexpected and delightfully surprising places, from the Appalachian Mountains to hunting down long-lost Cherokee trails, exploring the routes of termites and naked mole-rats carving tunnels through the earth to tracing the tangled neural pathways of a human brain and the internet.
Piece by piece, Moor reveals a breath-taking panoramic view of how pathways act as an essential guiding force on this planet and powerfully shows that without trails, we would truly be lost.
Waterstones’ Best Travel Writing
A Telegraph Best Travel Book
A Guardian Bookshop’s Best Nature Writing
Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award
‘Terrific, richly mapped and deeply felt and thought’ ROBERT MACFARLANE
'A wanderer's dream' THE ECONOMIST
'Marvellous' THE TELEGRAPH
‘An incredible history of why we walk in the paths and roads we do’ GRANTA
© Robert Moor 2027 (P) Penguin Audio 2027
Critic reviews
[An] engrossing meditation on trails in animal and human societies…Moor combines vivid
reportage told in supple prose with lucid explorations of science and history in an
absorbing account of how travelers shape and are shaped by the land they pass through
A sagacious walker and writer guides us on a new journey of discovery, a different kind of
road trip about roads themselves and what they mean… this is a fine guide to places with
better views of the world
Chockful of historical trivia, philosophical musings, and an unflagging sense of joy in
winding one’s way through both the outdoors and the inner self, Moor’s multi-dimensional
exploration earns him a place on the map of writers to watch. … Moor [is] an elegant
essayist and fastidious researcher. … Whether perambulating or cogitating, if you love to
follow a twisting path, making unexpected connections between Point A and Point B, you’ll
love the literary adventure of nonfiction writer Robert Moor’s compelling debut
Spectacular... an example of narrative nonfiction at its finest. Those with a passion for
walking, hiking or exploring will be naturally drawn to Moor's subject, but this is so much
more than a subject-specific story; it is a book that poses big questions about humanity's
place in the world (literally and figuratively) and how we've come to be here—and it's
fascinating to its very end
Hiker and journalist Moor [is] the rare thru-hiker whose philosophical ramblings you’ll
actually want to read. … [A] treatise on how trails—the ones we plan and the ones we
accidentally leave behind—shape our culture