This is a book about abandoned places: ghost towns and exclusion zones no man's lands and
fortress islands - and what happens when nature is allowed to reclaim its place. In Chernobyl
following the nuclear disaster only a handful of people returned to their dangerously
irradiated homes. On an uninhabited Scottish island feral cattle live entirely wild. In
Detroit once America's fourth-largest city entire streets of houses are falling in on
themselves looters slipping through otherwise silent neighbourhoods. This book explores the
extraordinary places where humans no longer live - or survive in tiny precarious numbers - to
give us a possible glimpse of what happens when mankind's impact on nature is forced to stop.
From Tanzanian mountains to the volcanic Caribbean the forbidden areas of France to the mining
regions of Scotland Flyn brings together some of the most desolate eerie ravaged and
polluted areas in the world - and shows how against all odds they offer our best
opportunities for environmental recovery. By turns haunted and hopeful this luminously written
world study is pinned together with profound insight and new ecological discoveries that
together map an answer to the big questions: what happens after we're gone and how far can our
damage to nature be undone? More praise for Islands of Abandonment 'Extraordinary ... Just when
you thought there was nowhere left to explore along comes an author with a new category of
terrain ... Dazzling' SPECTATOR 'A haunting look at how nature fights back ... Beautiful
evocative' SUNDAY TIMES 'Flyn's brave thorough book sets out to explore places where angels
fear to tread ... The result is fascinating eerie and strange ... There is some thrilling
writing here' KATHLEEN JAMIE NEW STATESMAN 'Wonderful' ADAM NICOLSON 'Exhilarating' DAILY
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