North American publication day for Lifelines!

I’m thrilled to say that the North American edition of Lifelines: Searching for Home in the Mountains of Greece is published today. My immense thanks to Godine for bringing this beautiful edition into the world and to Nicole Caputo for the absolutely stunning cover. I love how she’s centred the hand-painted lithograph of a Dalmatian pelican that was done by Edward Lear in 1837 into the overall design. Dalmatian pelicans are at the heart of the Prespa lakes region where much of this book is set, so it’s fitting that they should grace the cover so beautifully. And the book includes the wonderful map and illustrations of Greek artist Matina Galati that first appeared in the UK edition.

This is a book of homecoming. A quarter of a century ago my wife, Julia, and I moved from London to a mountain village high above the Prespa lakes that are shared by Greece, Albania and North Macedonia. A journey we embarked on because of a book that we’d read about the region at a time when we were trying to change our lives. Not in our wildest dreams did we ever imagine we might still be here all this time later, but it seems that books can, and do, fundamentally change lifelines.

Lifelines a story about the people of these mountains, the rare pelicans nesting on the lakes, the borders that divide the waters and the brown bears that forage in the valley behind our house. It’s a story of incredible generosity and welcome, having arrived here with overloaded rucksacks holding everything we thought we might need in these new lives of ours but with absolutely no idea of what would come next on our journey. A story, ultimately, of a shared world. And because it’s a shared world, this book isn’t just about the move we made to a mountain village above these ancient lakes, but brings together other home places and stories of shelter and resilience from across the planet. At a time when the climate and biodiversity crises are undermining the stability of the single sphere we share, it’s about the ways in which the lifelines of the world hold together the greater home of us all.

I’m so deeply honoured by the early endorsements and first reviews of this edition:

“Lifelines is a magical book that transforms the ordinary into the numinous. With a naturalist’s eye for detail, Julian Hoffman traces the pulse of our everyday lives through the wider community of life, revealing how the places we overlook are often the ones that sustain us. Intimate yet expansive, this rare book reminds us that home is not just where we live, but what keeps us alive. Read it to awaken your own lifeline back to wonder, belonging, and the network of life that holds us all.”
~ Ziya Tong, science broadcaster & author of The Reality Bubble

“Home,” writes Julian Hoffman in Lifelines, “is a relationship above all else. A way of living connectively.” He reveals those lifelines throughout this poignant, beautifully written memoir. Readers fascinated by travel and nature will be enchanted.”
~ Booklist, starred review

“Bird-watching, meditations on wildlife, and a move to Northern Greece animate Julian Hoffman’s poetic memoir Lifelines, about the varied meanings of shelter and survival on a changing planet….Throughout, Hoffman’s adopted village is the still point around which fascinating meanderings converge, building toward hopeful resilience….An insightful, conscientious memoir about exploring a newfound home and expressing appreciation for the wilderness.”
~ Foreword Reviews

“An exquisite exploration of belonging and what ‘home’ means in a world convulsed by change. Every page shimmers with beautifully evoked stories and insights. Mountains, bears, birds, people, flowers, and more converge and come to vivid life in these pages full of love and wisdom.”
~ David George Haskell, author of How Flowers Made Our World

“A rich journey into the meaning of shelter and finding it in an unsteady world–Lifelines is part memoir, part homing-manual, told through encounters with bears and rivers, wrens and people. A remarkable and beautiful read.”
~ Bathsheba Demuth, author of Floating Coast

Lifelines is now available at all our favourite bookstores across Canada and the United States and at the usual places online, including at Bookshop.org, which helps support independent bookstores when you order from them. I hope you enjoy the book and do let me know if you have any questions at all!