This literary debut—which earned author and journalist Amy Liptrot (b. 1984) the 2016 Wainwright Prize for nature writing and the 2017 PEN Ackerley Prize for autobiography—is the story of an escape from the clamor of London to the lush meadows of the Orkney Islands. Written as a candid diary, the book chronicles the narrator’s journey of self-discovery as she battles the false attachments—cigarettes, Coca-Cola, relationships, the internet—that had replaced her earlier urban struggles with alcohol and drugs. Years ago, a young Amy had left this remote island in the Scottish archipelago to conquer the capital, joining the ranks of freelance creatives. Now, she makes the journey back, discovering the wild power of the Atlantic Ocean along the way and reconciling her past with her present. What began as a period of forced isolation evolved into the birth of a new life. The book became a significant event in contemporary British literature, sparking a trend of interest in this once-overlooked corner of the Scottish coast.