In a seemingly ordinary field on Sharon Butala's land on the prairies of Canada lie the secrets of the past. When she and her husband, Peter, decided to let the field return to its natural state, the wonders of the prairie landscape began to reveal themselves to her. Over a 20-year period, as she walked this field, she tried to understand what lessons could be learned from its mysterious markings, its wildlife, grasses and plants, its massive rocks and boulders deposited there as the glaciers retreated. The field became a tabula rasa on which she could project her own dreams and imagining about the landscape that has informed her writing and inspired her life. Butala's keen intelligence ranges over prehistory, natural history, Amerindian custom, the farming and ranching ways of life, and the politics of the West today. Her book captures the collision of past and present and one woman's search for her own place in the world.
- ISBN10 000255397X
- ISBN13 9780002553971
- Publish Date 1 August 2000
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 16 June 2021
- Publish Country CA
- Publisher HarperCollins Publishers Inc
- Imprint HarperFestival
- Edition Harperflamingo ed.
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 205
- Language English