AUDIOBOOK
About
'A truly powerful paean to the night sky' CAROLINE EDEN, author of Black Sea
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At a time of personal crisis, travel writer and 'dark sky' advocate Megan Eaves-Egenes turned to the stars for solace. But those same stars, which have guided humankind since the very earliest cultures, are vanishing. As nocturnal cities bleach our skies – which are becoming 10% brighter every year – are we also losing our connection with everything that can come from darkness too?
To explore her deep curiosity about the night sky, Eaves-Egenes embarks on a journey that takes her from New Zealand to Uzbekistan, Ireland to Argentina, the Himalaya to Japan, discovering the many ways that different cultures have mapped, mythologised and feared the darkness. She meets the extraordinary communities that have made it their mission to understand, preserve and celebrate the beauty of their night skies, learning to see darkness in a whole new way.
Blending travel with myth, history and self-discovery, Nightfaring is a profound and often startling journey through the endangered night, revealing its capacity to enchant and connect us.
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'A raw, multisensory journey into the less-trodden nocturnal world' Stephanie Vermilion, author of 100 Nights of a Lifetime
'Insightful … reminds us of all that being in the dark brings alive' PAUL BOGARD, author of The End of Night
'There's a deep love of the night sky woven into every sentence, and a powerful lesson for humanity as it fakes a nocturnal existence: only in the stillness of night can we see the light' JAMIE CARTER, FORBES Megan Eaves-Egenes is a travel writer and advocate for sustainable travel and dark skies. From 2013 to 2019 she was Lonely Planet's North and Central Asia Destination Editor. She has written numerous guidebooks, including to China and South Korea, and her journalism has appeared in the Independent, BBC, The Times, CNN, Culture Trip, TimeOut and others.
In 2019, Megan founded DarkSky London, an advocacy group committed to reducing light pollution and protecting the natural night in the British capital. Since 2021, she has served as Editor of Nightscape, DarkSky's quarterly members' magazine. Originally from New Mexico, she has lived all over the world – from China to Prague to Ireland – and has called London home for the last 14 years. 'Nightfaring is an invitation to explore how the night sky connects us – to the past, to ourselves, to the planet and to the cosmos. Through rich storytelling and deeply reported histories, Megan leads us on a raw, multisensory journey into the less-trodden nocturnal world. This introspective read is a push to reimagine our relationship to the night ... It's also a reminder that travel, when done well, can be life's greatest teacher' 'Dark sky advocate Eaves-Egenes . . . tells stories not of the stars but of the night and its people in remote, dark places from Ireland to Italy via Tanzania, Japan and her native New Mexico. Her adventures reveal Western culture as dangerously allergic to darkness - cue the intensifying light pollution in cities - but also how only at night can we reevaluate, reset and renew. There's a deep love of the night sky woven into every sentence, and a powerful lesson for humanity as it fakes a nocturnal existence: only in the stillness of night can we see the light' 'As well as brimming with insight, Nightfaring is also a reassuring and comforting book' 'Mixing myth and history with the latest science, Eaves weaves her story with clear, insightful prose, offering an entertaining journey into the darkness that is so vital for life on earth and so easily forgotten. Nightfaring reminds us of all that being in the dark brings alive and allows, what we lose when we overuse artificial light, and the good wildness that makes the night so key to our
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At a time of personal crisis, travel writer and 'dark sky' advocate Megan Eaves-Egenes turned to the stars for solace. But those same stars, which have guided humankind since the very earliest cultures, are vanishing. As nocturnal cities bleach our skies – which are becoming 10% brighter every year – are we also losing our connection with everything that can come from darkness too?
To explore her deep curiosity about the night sky, Eaves-Egenes embarks on a journey that takes her from New Zealand to Uzbekistan, Ireland to Argentina, the Himalaya to Japan, discovering the many ways that different cultures have mapped, mythologised and feared the darkness. She meets the extraordinary communities that have made it their mission to understand, preserve and celebrate the beauty of their night skies, learning to see darkness in a whole new way.
Blending travel with myth, history and self-discovery, Nightfaring is a profound and often startling journey through the endangered night, revealing its capacity to enchant and connect us.
_________________________________________________________________
'A raw, multisensory journey into the less-trodden nocturnal world' Stephanie Vermilion, author of 100 Nights of a Lifetime
'Insightful … reminds us of all that being in the dark brings alive' PAUL BOGARD, author of The End of Night
'There's a deep love of the night sky woven into every sentence, and a powerful lesson for humanity as it fakes a nocturnal existence: only in the stillness of night can we see the light' JAMIE CARTER, FORBES Megan Eaves-Egenes is a travel writer and advocate for sustainable travel and dark skies. From 2013 to 2019 she was Lonely Planet's North and Central Asia Destination Editor. She has written numerous guidebooks, including to China and South Korea, and her journalism has appeared in the Independent, BBC, The Times, CNN, Culture Trip, TimeOut and others.
In 2019, Megan founded DarkSky London, an advocacy group committed to reducing light pollution and protecting the natural night in the British capital. Since 2021, she has served as Editor of Nightscape, DarkSky's quarterly members' magazine. Originally from New Mexico, she has lived all over the world – from China to Prague to Ireland – and has called London home for the last 14 years. 'Nightfaring is an invitation to explore how the night sky connects us – to the past, to ourselves, to the planet and to the cosmos. Through rich storytelling and deeply reported histories, Megan leads us on a raw, multisensory journey into the less-trodden nocturnal world. This introspective read is a push to reimagine our relationship to the night ... It's also a reminder that travel, when done well, can be life's greatest teacher' 'Dark sky advocate Eaves-Egenes . . . tells stories not of the stars but of the night and its people in remote, dark places from Ireland to Italy via Tanzania, Japan and her native New Mexico. Her adventures reveal Western culture as dangerously allergic to darkness - cue the intensifying light pollution in cities - but also how only at night can we reevaluate, reset and renew. There's a deep love of the night sky woven into every sentence, and a powerful lesson for humanity as it fakes a nocturnal existence: only in the stillness of night can we see the light' 'As well as brimming with insight, Nightfaring is also a reassuring and comforting book' 'Mixing myth and history with the latest science, Eaves weaves her story with clear, insightful prose, offering an entertaining journey into the darkness that is so vital for life on earth and so easily forgotten. Nightfaring reminds us of all that being in the dark brings alive and allows, what we lose when we overuse artificial light, and the good wildness that makes the night so key to our
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Reviews
"Author Eaves-Egenes travels the world looking for dark skies unmarred by light pollution. It has become harder to find places where the light has not banished the dark, and there are now official "dark sky" places, which are sought-out destinations. Narrator Stephanie Cannon's voice contains the wonder, curiosity, sadness, and even romantic love that Eaves-Egenes feels. Cannon deepens her voice for male characters and throws herself into multiple accents as the author travels to New Zealand, Ireland, England, Uzbekistan, Mount Everest, Japan, and many other places. Her approach, appropriate for fiction, feels slightly over-the-top for nonfiction. Eaves-Egenes discovers that her favorite constellation, the Pleiades, is central across cultures-it's called Matariki in New Zealand and Subaru in Japan. And she undertakes a four-day retreat into the complete dark.
This audiobook will have listeners seeking out dark skies and twinkling stars."
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