Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss

By Margaret Renkl

From New York Times opinion writer Margaret Renkl comes an unusual, captivating portrait of a family—and of the cycles of joy and grief that inscribe human lives within the natural world.

Growing up in Alabama, Renkl was a devoted reader, an explorer of riverbeds and red-dirt roads, and a fiercely loved daughter. Here, in brief essays, she traces a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents—her exuberant, creative mother; her steady, supportive father—and of the bittersweet moments that accompany a child’s transition to caregiver.

And here, braided into the overall narrative, Renkl offers observations on the world surrounding her suburban Nashville home. Ringing with rapture and heartache, these essays convey the dignity of bluebirds and rat snakes, monarch butterflies and native bees. As these two threads haunt and harmonize with each other, Renkl suggests that there is astonishment to be found in common things: in what seems ordinary, in what we all share. For in both worlds—the natural one and our own—“the shadow side of love is always loss, and grief is only love’s own twin.”

Gorgeously illustrated by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, Late Migrations is an assured and memorable debut.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Milkweed Editions
• Release date: Jul 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9781571319876

Margaret Renkl

Margaret Renkl is the author of Graceland, At Last and Late Migrations, which was a Read with Jenna/TODAY Show book club selection. She is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, where her essays appear weekly. Her work has also appeared in Guernica, Literary Hub, Proximity, and River Teeth, among others. She was the founding editor of Chapter 16, the daily literary publication of Humanities Tennessee, and is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Carolina. She lives in Nashville.

Reviews for Late Migrations

[wiserwisegirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beautifully written. The soul of a nature lover is revealed. Messages of hope and survival during the process of mourning are not gloomy, but feel like the words of a wise friend. I enjoyed the layout that included beautiful drawings and succinct chapters with short thoughts and observations about people and the world around us.

[banjo123 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is a memoir, I think, told in a series of mini-essays about family, birds, nature, and grieving. Renkl's brother contributed the illustrations, which are lovely. Here are some parts that I marked:In "Imperfect-Family Beatitudes" she ends with "Blessed are the parents whose final words on leaving--the house, the care, the least consequential phone call--are always "I love you." THey will leave behind children who are lost and still found, broken and somehow, still whole.""One evening I looked out, and there in the growing twilight was a male scarlet tanager taking a drink. I had never seen one in this yard before, and I have not seen one since. But I think often of that beautiful bird, of the few seconds I could stand at my window and watch him taking drink of water in the gloaming. To me he looked like a blood-red, hollow-boned embodiment of grace.

[dele2451 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Just as the backyard orb weaver deftly spins and recreates her web, Renkl beautifully intertwines the cycle of life playing out in her suburban neighborhood's landscape with the one happening inside her own aging family. A lovely, honest read.

[kayanelson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This will probably end up being my favorite book of 2020. Observation--that is what this book is about. Observation about family and nature. Love and loss. Wow--read this

[hemlokgang · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a moving collection of observations, memories, stories, and feelings of love and loss! The author weaves brief vignettes about nature and family to create a lush, literary tapestry which wraps itself around the reader like a cocoon. Nature's events and life events co-mingle, becoming one. Margaret Renkl has used poetic prose to capture the essence and power of love and loss in our lives. Anyone who has loved and lost loved ones will resonate to these vignettes. Take your time, absorb the beauty and truth of each essay, and carry these words with you through your days.

[ecataldi-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Poetic, somber, jubilant, heart-wrenching, and beautiful; this collection of short essays from Margaret Renkl is a must read. Essays about the nature in her backyard, history of her grandparents, her childhood, her parents, motherhood, and migratory patterns of birds. This collection encompasses love and loss through a personal and natural lens. Interspersed throughout are beautiful color images of animals and plants. A deeply touching and deeply personal memoir of sorts. One that readers will come back to time and again.

[msf59 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“My mother's grandparents went through the day in a kind of dance, preordained steps that took them away from each other—he to his rounds across the countryside, she to the closer world of clothesline and pea patch and barn, but brought them back together again and again, touching for just a moment before moving away once more.”“Sitting on that front porch in the heat of an Alabama summer, with grasshoppers buzzing in the ag fields just across the road and bluebirds swooping off the fence posts to snatch them up, I considered the alternate future he was laying before me: a life of poems. It was a lifeline to a life.”Renkl grew up in rural Alabama, surrounded by a loving tight-knit family. As an adult she relocated to the Nashville area. In these brief essays or vignettes, if you will, Renkl mines her life, examining the loss and grief, of her family members and the solace she finds in the beauty of the natural world. Either through her love of birds, butterflies, or a sun-drenched meadow. There are also a smattering of gorgeous illustrations, by her brother, Billy, which makes the print book a necessity. Fans of H is For Hawk, Terry Tempest Williams, nature, poetry and wonderful prose, should pick up this book.