Plus, receive recommendations and exclusive offers on all of your favorite books and authors from Simon & Schuster.
The Past and Possible World
A Field Guide to Restoring Ecosystems, Communities, and Hope
LIST PRICE $30.00
PRICE MAY VARY BY RETAILER
Free shipping when you spend $40. Terms apply.
Buy from Other Retailers
Table of Contents
About the Book
A tender, hopeful book that pierces through the seemingly insurmountable doom of our existential climate threat, allowing us a window into another world through stories of tenacious, inspiring approaches to restoration and repair across the globe
The Past and Possible World explores how to respond to environmental loss in an era of accelerating crises—climate change, ecological destruction, extinctions. From her home in Houston, where she lives at the forefront of climate disaster and ecological decline, Johnson asks how we came to arrive in this moment of environmental urgency, and now that we are here, where do we go? Through a series of journeys—to a glacier funeral in Iceland, a forest in east Texas, the Chihuahuan desert—Johnson follows the story of our environmental crises from the present back through history, locating their roots in colonization and extractive capitalism.
Humans are capable of terrible destruction, yes, but also of beauty and restoration and change. Johnson volunteers on habitat restoration efforts and visits restored landscapes to learn how acts of environmental repair can transform not only individual ecosystems, but also social relationships as well. As she documents these changes, Johnson offers a vision of what devotion looks like in an era of climate disruption—to nurture what cannot be fully restored, to imagine futures that are not guaranteed.
Written with clarity, humility, scientific rigor, and close attention to the deep memory of landscapes, this is a book about the slow, collective work of mending ecological relationships, the ethics of tying our fates to imperiled places, and the fragile futures that persist despite loss. The Past and Possible World offers a pathway to hope through the difficult and collective work of caring for what still can be.
The Past and Possible World explores how to respond to environmental loss in an era of accelerating crises—climate change, ecological destruction, extinctions. From her home in Houston, where she lives at the forefront of climate disaster and ecological decline, Johnson asks how we came to arrive in this moment of environmental urgency, and now that we are here, where do we go? Through a series of journeys—to a glacier funeral in Iceland, a forest in east Texas, the Chihuahuan desert—Johnson follows the story of our environmental crises from the present back through history, locating their roots in colonization and extractive capitalism.
Humans are capable of terrible destruction, yes, but also of beauty and restoration and change. Johnson volunteers on habitat restoration efforts and visits restored landscapes to learn how acts of environmental repair can transform not only individual ecosystems, but also social relationships as well. As she documents these changes, Johnson offers a vision of what devotion looks like in an era of climate disruption—to nurture what cannot be fully restored, to imagine futures that are not guaranteed.
Written with clarity, humility, scientific rigor, and close attention to the deep memory of landscapes, this is a book about the slow, collective work of mending ecological relationships, the ethics of tying our fates to imperiled places, and the fragile futures that persist despite loss. The Past and Possible World offers a pathway to hope through the difficult and collective work of caring for what still can be.
About the Author
Photograph by Josh Okun
Lacy Johnson is author of The Reckonings, the memoir The Other Side—both National Book Critics Circle Award finalists—and the memoir Trespasses. Her writing has appeared in The Best American Essays, The Best American Travel Writing, The New Yorker, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Orion, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. She is the Founding Director of the Houston Flood Museum, an ongoing work of public remembering that seeks to exhibit the connections between human activities and catastrophic flooding. She is also editor, with the graphic designer Cheryl Beckett, of More City Than Water: A Houston Flood Atlas. She directs the MFA program in creative writing at Rice University, where she teaches nonfiction as the Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie Professor of Creative Writing.
Product Details
- Publisher: Scribner (March 2, 2027)
- Length: 336 pages
- ISBN13: 9781668021828
Browse Related Books
Raves and Reviews
Praise for The Past and Possible World
“Lacy Johnson's latest book reminds us that inside every reparative act are the seeds of revolution. Take care, stay close, tether your song to another—as I read The Past and Possible World I too was healed.” —Elizabeth Rush, author of The Quickening
"Johnson, one of the best environmental storytellers on our planet, reveals a path through overlapping environmental crises that doesn’t lead toward catastrophe or false hope, but toward determination and possibility." —Kerri Arsenault, author of Mill Town
"The Past and Possible World is exactly the kind of antidote we need in this age of cascading ecological grief. Lacy M. Johnson does not turn away from the wreckage of extractive capitalism and colonization; instead, she walks directly into the wounded landscapes of our planet—from melting glaciers to fire-scarred forests—to show us that devastation is not the final word. With deep humility, clear-eyed curiosity, and a profound ethic of care, Johnson maps out what it truly means to stay devoted to an imperiled world. This is a beautiful blueprint for collective repair." —Emily Raboteau, author of Lessons for Survival
Praise for Lacy M. Johnson
"Johnson's essays are not only bold and memorable, but insistent reminders that all good essays are, in fact, reckonings: attempts to work out problems, whether domestic, cosmic or both, on the page." —Houston Chronicle
"Johnson writes with palpable compassion and brilliance, illuminating her deep humanity, while imbuing it in equal measure in the people she writes about."—LitHub
“Johnson excels at providing critical analysis of social justice and uses a variety of works, including mythology and film, to make the case for forging ahead with mercy and compassion." —Library Journal
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
-
Book Cover Image (jpg): The Past and Possible World
Hardcover 9781668021828
-
Author Photo (jpg): Lacy M. Johnson Photograph by Josh Okun(0.1 MB)
Any use of an author photo must include its respective photo credit
