Island

<p>Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.<br><br>Darwin called the Galápagos archipelago “a little world within itself,” unaffected by humans and set on its own evolutionary path – strange, diverse, and unique. Islands are repositories of unique cultures and ways of living, seed banks built up in relative isolation. <i>Island </i>is an archipelago of ideas, drawing from research and first-hand experience living, working, and traveling to islands as far afield as Madeira and Cape Verde, Orkney and Svalbard, the Aran Islands and the Gulf Islands, Hong Kong and Manhattan. <br><br>Islands have long been viewed as both paradise and prison – we project onto them our deepest desires for freedom and escape, but also our greatest fears of forced isolation. This book asks: what can islands teach us about living sustainably, being alone or coexisting with others, coping with uncertainty, and making do?<br><br><i>Island </i>explores these and other questions and ideas, but is constructed above all from the stories and experiences gathered during a lifetime of island hopping.<br><br>Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in <i>The Atlantic.</i></p>