A Window on Eternity: A Biologist's Walk Through Gorongosa National Park

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Overview

A Window on Eternity is a stunning book of splendid prose and gorgeous photography about one of the biologically richest places in Africa and perhaps in the world. Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique was nearly destroyed in a brutal civil war, then was reborn and is now evolv-ing back to its original state. Edward O. Wilson’s personal, luminous description of the wonders of Gorongosa is beautifully complemented by Piotr Naskrecki’s extraordinary photographs of the park’s exquisite natural beauty. A bonus DVD of...

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Overview

A Window on Eternity is a stunning book of splendid prose and gorgeous photography about one of the biologically richest places in Africa and perhaps in the world. Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique was nearly destroyed in a brutal civil war, then was reborn and is now evolv-ing back to its original state. Edward O. Wilson’s personal, luminous description of the wonders of Gorongosa is beautifully complemented by Piotr Naskrecki’s extraordinary photographs of the park’s exquisite natural beauty. A bonus DVD of Academy Award–winning director Jessica Yu’s documentary, The Guide, is also included with the book.

Wilson takes readers to the summit of Mount Gorongosa, sacred to the local people and the park’s vital watershed. From the forests of the mountain he brings us to the deep gorges on the edge of the Rift Valley, previously unexplored by biologists, to search for new species and assess their ancient origins. He describes amazing animal encounters from huge colonies of agricultural termites to spe­cialized raider ants that feed on them to giant spi­ders, a battle between an eagle and a black mamba, “conversations” with traumatized elephants that survived the slaughter of the park’s large animals, and more. He pleads for Gorongosa—and other wild places—to be allowed to exist and evolve in its time­less way uninterrupted into the future.

As he examines the near destruction and rebirth of Gorongosa, Wilson analyzes the balance of nature, which, he observes, teeters on a razor’s edge. Loss of even a single species can have serious ramifications throughout an ecosystem, and yet we are carelessly destroying complex biodiverse ecosystems with unknown consequences. The wildlands in which these ecosystems flourish gave birth to humanity, and it is this natural world, still evolving, that may outlast us and become our leg­acy, our window on eternity.

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Editorial Reviews

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Biologist E.O. Wilson (The Diversity of Life; Sociobiology; The Ants) has authored two Pulitzer Prize-winning books and won numerous other accolades. His new book A Window on Eternity uses the history of Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park to spotlight the significance of biodiversity to human life. The country's protracted (1978-1992) civil war devastated the 1,500 square mile park, killing as much as ninety percent of its animal population and wreaking havoc on its ecology. In the decades since, efforts have been implemented to restore Gorongosa and return it to its former state. A case history that is also a superb layperson's introduction to biodiversity. Editor's recommendation.

Publishers Weekly
02/10/2014
Wilson (Letters to a Young Scientist) presents a lyrical ode to biodiversity within the framework of a memoir of his work in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, helping to rebuild it from the loss of nearly all of its megafauna as it was neglected, repurposed as a battleground, and destroyed by poachers during the 16-year civil war. Wilson speaks with passion throughout, whether decoding evidence of our ancestors in Africa, expressing admiration of his professional peers, detailing the joy of everyday people cataloguing bugs in a “bioblitz,” diving into the details of eternal ant wars, or simply describing the preserve’s beauty with just the right amount of sentimentality. Nasrecki’s lush landscapes, elephant and primate portraits, and bright, strangely charismatic insect close-ups enliven every spread, making this volume’s visual content as remarkable as the stories. With the success of the Gorongosa project as his example, Wilson makes a persuasive plea for reserving large areas of the Earth as sanctuaries for not only the big predators, but for the tiny species, too numerous to even have been documented, that live in micro-niches in our wildest areas. Color photos. (May)
Nature - Stuart Pimm
“A Window on Eternity revels in biodiversity and nature’s inventiveness. . . . Wilson plants his defiant flag defending biodiversity in a place once so brutally despoiled that its recovery is truly momentous.”
Associated Press Staff
“Wilson specializes in ants, and his explanations about the importance of insect relationships and biodiversity in Gorongosa are charming and accessible—no jargon, just joy.”
Discover
“The famed biologist still gets giddy as a schoolboy when he encounters ants that can consume a live python, or describe how to hypnotize a dragonfly. Wilson waxes poetic about the marvel of the park's well-balanced ecosystems, but changes his tone in the final chapter: a condemnation of humanity trampling en route to what he calls the Eremocene, or Age of Loneliness.”
The Christian Science Monitor - Danny Heitman
“Wilson suggests that our tired planet, managed wisely, can still demonstrate an enormous capacity for regeneration. . . . [his] prose consistently strikes a note of transcendence, and one sees a hint of that, too, in the pictures of Gorongosa by Piotr Nasrecki that accompany the text.”
The Scientist - Bob Grant
“The father of sociobiology and one of the most prolific science writers of our time, Edward O. Wilson is back with a new book that explores a slice of wilderness in deepest Africa. . . . As usual, Wilson’s observations carry more weight than the descriptions of a simple naturalist. In A Window on Eternity, he invites us to glimpse ourselves in the mirror of one of Earth’s few remaining wildernesses.”
The Huffington Post - David Edmund Moody
“Wilson describes in language that is both poetic and scientific a kind of parable of what is possible in the realm of environmental protection. . . . By destroying the natural world, we are destroying ourselves. Our blindness to this reality is the most crucial and fundamental fact of the world today. A Window on Eternity brings this reality into focus in a lucid and disarmingly gentle manner. It is a fitting capstone to Wilson's exceptional career.”
Science News - Allison Bohac
“Entomologist E.O. Wilson chronicles both the shifting ecology of Gorongosa after the war and how researchers are trying to repair the damage. . . . Naskrecki’s images are a delight, capturing the spirit of the recovering landscape and its animals, great and small. . . . Ultimately, the book is a cautionary tale about how human affairs are fundamentally entangled with the natural world.”
The Washington Post - Justin Moyer
"[Wilson is] The world's greatest living naturalist."
Library Journal
11/01/2013
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and distinguished scientist Wilson takes us to Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park for a story at once devastating and hopeful. The 1,500 square mile park, once a rich patch of land packed with animals large and small, was nearly destroyed by the 1978–92 civil war, which gutted the ecosystem and wiped out 90 percent of some large animal populations. But the park is now approaching its former glory owing to the conservation efforts of an American entrepreneur. Wilson uses this story to clarify the importance of biodiversity. With 50 four-color photographs and a crucial message.
Kirkus Reviews
2014-02-16
The rebirth of a premier nature reserve in Mozambique, recounted in a gentle storytelling style by noted Harvard entomologist Wilson (Letters to a Young Scientist, 2013, etc.). Gorongosa National Park has only in the last two decades emerged from a hellacious civil war. Wilson provides a vest-pocket history of the conflict and pays due respect to those who were killed or devastated by the violence. However, the author was in the park on other business: to witness the slow recuperation of the parkland at the hands of the philanthropist Gregory Carr in conjunction with the people of the region. This is virgin territory for biologists—much of the park is inaccessible except by air—and Wilson's excitement is evident on every page, most of which are peppered with spectacular photographs of fauna and flora. The author takes his time in describing inselbergs, caves, limestone ridges, deep ravines, the yellow trunks of fever trees, the parasols of palms, savannah and grassland—a wonder of habitats and an absolute treasure of biodiversity. Taking nothing for granted, Wilson walks readers through evolutionary theory—heredity divergence, mother and daughter species, speciation, adaptive radiation, and the long, strange trip of our species—and then treats them to a logbook of how fieldwork is conducted. His voice is soft, cheerful and full of confidence: If this type of reclamation work can be done in such a ravaged and remote region, think of the possibilities for turning around grotesquely polluted sites all over the world. Wilson is both a hardheaded naturalist and a dreamer: "[T]he beauty and drama and other emotions that brought me to Mozambique and this velvetberry bush were entirely in my own head." A big story about a small place with an ageless appreciation and discernment it would be criminal to ignore.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781476747415
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
  • Publication date: 4/22/2014
  • Pages: 176
  • Sales rank: 77223
  • Product dimensions: 7.50 (w) x 9.20 (h) x 0.90 (d)

Meet the Author

Edward O. Wilson is generally recognized as one of the world’s leading scientists. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and the author of many influential books, including The Diversity of Life, Naturalist, The Ants, and Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. He is currently Honorary Curator in Entomology and University Research Professor Emeritus, Harvard University.

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