Late Migrations

A Natural History of Love and Loss

By: Margaret Renkl

Narrated by: Joyce Bean

Selected as a TODAY Show #ReadWithJenna book club pick, Late Migrations is an unusual, captivating portrait of a family - and of the cycles of joy and grief that inscribe human lives within the natural world - from beloved New York Times opinion writer Margaret Renkl.

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.

©2019 by Margaret Renkl. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Joyce Bean's narrations are always genuine and down-to-earth, and this performance of Margaret Renkl's short essays on the natural world and her family is no different." —AudioFile Magazine

Letters from an animal lover.

A collection of short but eloquent stories written by one of the best. They cover one life but oh, such a life

Wonderful, Deeply Moving

The author’s frank exploration of emotion and beautifully vivid mastery of language unexpectedly drew me in, with narration that further enriched the experience. This touching memoir crosses barriers of culture, time and gender, at once both strongly personal and upliftingly universal.

Wonderful nature story

This book was so wonderful it brought tears to my eyes. A bird hitting a window and a chipmunk hit by a car was so real. She is a brilliant writer.

Thoughtful and inspiring

Beautiful writing about difficult subject matter. Bringing in nature and awareness of life in inspiring ways.

So much better than I expected.

I had not listened to this type of book before and found the author's musings of the natural world and her childhood enchanting. This continues into her midlife as she migrates from southern Alabama to Nashville,Tenn.