The Snow Geese

Winner of the Hawthornden Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize I had attached myself to the birds. I couldn't move on until the birds moved on, and the birds couldn't move on without the spring. One winter, after an enforced period of recuperation, William Fiennes finds himself restless and yearning for adventure. He travels to Texas, where he begins a quest to trace the million-strong flocks of snow geese making their spring flight thousands of miles north to the Arctic tundra. On his epic journey he meets people from every walk of life, from ex-nuns to train fanatics, and their stories resound with the longing to arrive at the right place in the world. The Snow Geese is a poignant and lyrical paean to the richness and wonder of the world around us. A unique blend of autobiography, travel and nature writing, this is a classic tale of belonging and the inescapable lure of home. Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

William Fiennes FRSL is the author of The Snow Geese and The Music Room. He was Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and the recipient of a Somerset Maugham Award and the Hawthornden Prize. He has contributed reviews, essays and stories to the London Review of Books, Granta, the Observer and the Times Literary Supplement. He lives in London.