Wind: How the Flow of Air Has Shaped Life, Myth, and the Land

The winds of the world have sculpted the land and all aspects of nature, but they’ve also shaped humans—histories, cultures, and settlements. Ephemeral and powerful, the wind is impossible to capture in a single phrase or image. In Wind, Jan DeBlieu sets out to better understand this force of nature by exploring its many aspects and effects, large and small, in a quest that spans the United States.

She visits a weather observatory at the summit of Mount Washington, talks to survivors of a deadly tornado in Iowa, tries hang gliding in North Carolina, and climbs sand dunes in Oregon and slickrock formations in Utah. DeBlieu lives on one of the most wind-plagued landscapes on the earth, North Carolina’s Outer Banks, where the winds have shaped the contours of the islands, the migrations of birds and fish, and the customs and character of the residents. In poetic prose she seamlessly interweaves her life experiences with scientific research to compelling and enriching result.

Winner of the John Burroughs Medal for Natural History Writing, Wind brings us closer to a force that affects us all.