Bestselling author David Gessner asks what kind of planet his daughter will inherit
in this coast-to-coast guide to navigating climate crisis.
The world is burning and the seas are rising. How do we navigate this new age of extremes?
In A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World, David Gessner takes readers on an eye-opening tour of climate hotspots from the Gulf of Mexico to the burning American West to New York City to the fragile Outer Banks, where homes are being swallowed by the seas.
He does so with his usual sense of humor, compassion, and a willingness to talk to anyone,
providing an informative and sobering yet convivial guide for the age of fire, heat, wind, and water.
Gessner approaches scientists and thinkers with a father’s question: What will the world be like in forty-two years? Gessner was forty-two when his daughter, Hadley, was born. What will the world be like in 2064, when Hadley is his age now? What is the future of weather? The future of heat, storms, and fire? What exactly will our children be facing? A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World tells a story of climate crisis that will both entertain and shake people awake to the necessity of navigating this new age together.
Gessner is a professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine, Ecotone. His own magazine publications include pieces in the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Sierra, Audubon, Orion, and many other magazines, and his prizes include a Pushcart Prize and the John Burroughs Award for Best Nature Essay for his essay “Learning to Surf.” He has also won the Association for Study of Literature and the Environment’s award for best book of creative writing, and the Reed Award for Best Book on the Southern Environment.
In 2017 he hosted the National Geographic Explorer show, “The Call of the Wild.”
He is married to the novelist Nina de Gramont, whose latest book is The Christie Affair.