"Lopez did not take the task of writing lightly. . . . Sentences shimmer and punch. . . . In one of the 27 essays that are collected here, he tries to pin down the point of it all: 'The central project of my adult life as a writer, ' he says, 'is to know and love what we have been given, and to urge others to do the same.' . . . He loved this world, and did his best, and pointed us the way."
--The New York Times "Mesmerizing . . . The book reviewer runs out of superlatives, quailing before the work of the nature writer, essayist and fiction writer Barry Lopez (1945-2020), whose insight and moral clarity have earned comparisons to Henry David Thoreau. . . . To read Barry Lopez is to put yourself in the hands of a master observer who is enthralled by the strange beauty of our fragile planet, and who will be the first to tell you how little he actually knows."
--The Wall Street Journal "[Barry Lopez's] final collection of essays,
Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World, should remind readers just how wide-ranging, artful, and deeply personal his writing could be."
--The Boston Globe "Lyrical, his climate-change writing alone is for the ages."
--Chicago Tribune "This posthumously published collection of essays by nature writer Barry Lopez reveals an exceptional life and mind. . . . While certainly a testament to his legacy and an ephemeral reprieve from his death in 2020, this book is more than a memorial: it offers a clear-eyed praxis of hope in what Lopez calls this 'Era of Emergencies.'"
--Scientific American "Altogether, the pieces are honest and searching, engaging readers in the largest of questions: How do we live in the world? How do we see it? How do we protect it? . . . A sterling valediction. Lopez's many followers will treasure this book."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "In this precious posthumous collection of recent and previously unpublished essays, [Lopez] reveals many more dimensions of his quests and discoveries. . . . Readers will treasure this hearth of a collection from a crucial and profound writer of spirit, commitment, benevolence, and reverence."
--Booklist (starred review)
