Scottish journalist Cal Flynn explains how desolate places can also offer hope

They are desolate and dilapidated places. The neutral zone of Cyprus that separates the Greek and Turkish communities, the declared uninhabitable “alienation zone” around the nuclear reactor exploded 35 years ago in Chernobyl, Detroit’s populated neighborhoods. Or is that not all that can be said?

Originally and interesting Abandoned places Scottish journalist Cal Flynn searches for places in different parts of the world where people have packed their bags in great numbers: places devastated by natural disasters, wars, economic decline, and nuclear accidents. She writes beautifully, among other things, about abandoned collective farms in Estonia, piles of trash in depleted mining areas in Scotland, and ship graves in the United States. Flynn shows that the man still left his “long shadow” long after he had left.

But it also shows something else. Because, she says, all of these places offer their own mix of sadness and hope. It also shows that the absence of man gives nature a space to heal, to reclaim “what was once her.” Even in the area around Chernobyl, where wild animals have returned in large numbers. Flynn says time is a great healer, but the question is; How much time do we have?

Cal Flynn
Abandoned places. Nature after man.
Transcode. Weebrand Schaeffer
AtlasContact 422 pages, 24.99 euros.