Magdalena Mountain
A Novel
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"An elegant, eccentric novel of love, loneliness, and lepidoptera . . . Worthy company for work by other naturalist/novelists: Nabokov, Matthiessen, Kingsolver." —Kirkus Reviews
In Magdalena Mountain, Robert Michael Pyle's first and long–awaited novel, the award–winning naturalist proves he is as at home in an imagined landscape as he is in the natural one. At the center of this story of majesty and high mountain magic are three Magdalenas—Mary, a woman whose uncertain journey opens the book; Magdalena Mountain, shrouded in mystery and menace; and the all–black Magdalena alpine butterfly, the most elusive of several rare and beautiful species found on the mountain.
And high in the Colorado Rocky Mountain wilderness, sharing the remote territory of the Erebia magdalena butterfly, lives the enigmatic Oberon, a reluctant de facto leader of the Grove, a diverse community of monks who share a devotion to nature. Converging in the same wilderness are October Carson, a beachcomber–wanderer in pursuit of the alpine butterflies he collects for museums; James Mead, a young graduate student intent upon learning the ecology of this seductive creature; and Mary Glanville, who also seeks the butterfly but can't remember why.
While the mystery surrounding Mary takes a menacing turn, their shared quest pulls them deeper into the high mountain wilderness, culminating in a harrowing encounter on the stony slopes of Magdalena Mountain.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The first novel from prolific nature writer Pyle (Wintergreen) is bathed in exquisite and venerating descriptions of nature, wildlife, and pristine environments. The bountiful tundra of Magdalena Mountain in the Colorado Rockies hosts a group of people and creatures who achieve purpose and belonging amid the beauty. In the early 1970s, eager Yale graduate student James Mead conducts research on the mountain, tracking the elusive "stunning black velvet" Erebia magdalena butterfly and the equally ethereal October Carson, a lepidopterist whose field journals Mead devours. Also drawn to the mountain are pantheistic naturalist monks led by the astute Oberon, and scrupulous Yale Divinity School grad Mary Glanville, who, after a head injury, believes herself to be the reincarnation of Mary Magdalene. As these characters converge, the Erebia magdalena lives out its brief and precarious life cycle in crystalline detail: "Erebia looks much as he did upon eclosure: dark chocolate, velvet, and whole, though the sparse overscaling of prismatic rainbow scales that made him iridesce at first have fallen away." Pyle eschews a traditional plot for philosophical discussion of the Earth as Mother, the death of ecosystems, overpopulation, and nuclear threat. His contemplative novel will be a treat for readers who delight in the tranquility of nature.
