“…this book exudes humility and hope.”
– The Kitsap Herald
“Turning Homeward is a work of thoughtful atonement. Scanlan writes honestly and tenderly about what has not worked in mending her life, and the lives of salmon and urban streams, as well as what has. And out of despair at the havoc we have wreaked on this earth and each other, a quiet sense of hope grows in her words, the kind of active expectation of the results of conscious work that can in fact, lead to mending the wounds of the world and we humans.”
– Story Circle Book Reviews
**Turning Homeward is a 2017 Washington State Book Award Finalist, 2016 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award Winner (Notable Book) and Nautilus Book Awards (2016-2017 Silver Medal)**
• A beautifully rendered natural history of the Puget Sound region
Turning Homeward: Restoring Hope and Nature in the Urban Wild
is the journey of a newcomer to the Pacific Northwest who learns that home isn’t simply where you live, but where you create belonging.
Set in Seattle and Western Washington's urban and suburban “altered” landscapes,
Turning Homeward
creates an accessible narrative of the complicated joys of rolling up one’s sleeves to help repair our beautiful, broken world. Adrienne Scanlan's personal story blends into the natural history of Puget Sound and the tangled issues around urban renewal and river restoration. In the process, readers move with her into a meaningful, hope-filled engagement with place and another understanding of the idea of home.
Adrienne explores how seasons spent restoring the city’s salmon runs help her make peace with her father's death and build a new marriage.
speaks to a simple truth spreading through our society: The nature we cherish lives alongside us, and by restoring it we heal both home and heart.