Zusatztext Winner of the American Book Award (from the Before Columbus Foundation) Winner of the ASLE Environmental Creative Writing Award Finalist for the PEN American Open Book Award Finalist for the Phillis Wheatley Book Award Shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing Shortlisted for the Orion Book Award A thoughtful collection of essays . . . Savoy raises more questions than she answers, but they are the kind of questions that provoke discussion. This is not a book to be read quickly. Rather, each of the eight essays deserves consideration on its own . . . her images are often poetic and her personal revelations can be striking . . . the close read is worth the effort. The Boston Globe Blends memoir, history, and the landscape to uncover hidden legacies. It will create seismic shifts in readers' perspectives on race, gender, and nature. Kathryn Aalto, BuzzFeed Savoy is a geologist at Mount Holyoke, but this sui generis creation, wherein John McPhee meets James Baldwin, dissolves all academic boundaries. Trace is a memoir, a meditation on landscape and identity, and a travelogue with a mission. 'As an Earth historian,' writes Savoy, 'I once sought the relics of deep time. To be an honest woman, I must trace other residues of hardness.' Digging for her family roots in America's tripartite legacynatives, African slaves, and European settlersshe unearths some genealogy, but more fruitful are the connections she makes between philosophy, ecology, and race. Vulture An earth historian by trade, Lauret Savoy journeys through the landscapeand her own rootsin this sweeping book that's part memoir, part travelogue, part scientific text. Savoy digs into her Native American, European and AfricanAmerican history and maps her discoveries against our thoughts about place in this fascinating book. The Huffington Post Springing from the literal Earth to metaphor, Savoy demonstrates the power of narrative to erase as easily as it reveals, yielding a provocative, eclectic expose´ of the palimpsest historically defining the U.S. as much as any natural or manmade boundary. Kirkus (starred review) [An] illuminating treatise . . . 'Each told fact holds meaning to the recorder, and each historical narrative (re)presents accidental and deliberate silences or omissions,' Savoy writes. As she assuredly shows, these silences can be telling, reminding us to watch for bias, and that when it comes to interpreting history, the viewing lens is almost as important as the narrative. Booklist In reverential, elegiac prose, Savoy . . . meditates on the meaning of history and identity as related to place. Savoy's deep knowledge of the land opens up intriguing new avenues for exploring the multifaceted, tumultuous nature of American identity. Publishers Weekly A stunning excavation and revelation of race, identity, and the American landscape. I have never read a more beautiful, smart, and vulnerable accounting of how we are shaped by memory in place. This braiding of personal history with geology and the systematic erasure of Other in pursuit of Manifest Destiny is a stratigraphy of conscience and consciousness. What Lauret Savoy creates on the page is as breathtaking as the view she saw as a child as she stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon with her parents and learned land does not hate, people do. I stand in awe of Lauret Savoy's wisdom and compassionate intelligence. Trace is a crucial book for our time, a bound sanity, not a forgiveness, but a reckoning. Terry Tempest Williams, author of When Women Were Birds , Finding Beauty in a Broken World , and Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place Mustreading for anyone who cares still about life on earth right here and now . . . In her contemplative essay, Lauret Sav...

**Winner of the American Book Award (from the Before Columbus Foundation) 
Winner of the ASLE Environmental Creative Writing Award
Finalist for the PEN American Open Book Award 
Finalist for the Phillis Wheatley Book Award
Shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing 
Shortlisted for the Orion Book Award

“A thoughtful collection of essays . . . Savoy raises more questions than she answers, but they are the kind of questions that provoke discussion. This is not a book to be read quickly. Rather, each of the eight essays deserves consideration on its own . . . her images are often poetic and her personal revelations can be striking . . . the close read is worth the effort.” —The Boston Globe

“Blends memoir, history, and the landscape to uncover hidden legacies. It will create seismic shifts in readers' perspectives on race, gender, and nature.” —Kathryn Aalto, BuzzFeed

“Savoy is a geologist at Mount Holyoke, but this sui generis creation, wherein John McPhee meets James Baldwin, dissolves all academic boundaries. Trace is a memoir, a meditation on landscape and identity, and a travelogue with a mission. 'As an Earth historian,' writes Savoy, 'I once sought the relics of deep time. To be an honest woman, I must trace other residues of hardness.' Digging for her family roots in America’s tripartite legacy—natives, African slaves, and European settlers—she unearths some genealogy, but more fruitful are the connections she makes between philosophy, ecology, and race.” —Vulture

“An earth historian by trade, Lauret Savoy journeys through the landscape—and her own roots—in this sweeping book that's part memoir, part travelogue, part scientific text. Savoy digs into her Native American, European and African–American history and maps her discoveries against our thoughts about place in this fascinating book.” —The Huffington Post

“Springing from the literal Earth to metaphor, Savoy demonstrates the power of narrative to erase as easily as it reveals, yielding a provocative, eclectic exposé of the palimpsest historically defining the U.S. as much as any natural or man–made boundary.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“[An] illuminating treatise . . . 'Each told fact holds meaning to the recorder, and each historical narrative (re)presents accidental and deliberate silences or omissions,' Savoy writes. As she assuredly shows, these silences can be telling, reminding us to watch for bias, and that when it comes to interpreting history, the viewing lens is almost as important as the narrative.” —Booklist

“In reverential, elegiac prose, Savoy . . . meditates on the meaning of history and identity as related to place. Savoy’s deep knowledge of the land opens up intriguing new avenues for exploring the multifaceted, tumultuous nature of American identity.” —Publishers Weekly

“A stunning excavation and revelation of race, identity, and the American landscape. I have never read a more beautiful, smart, and vulnerable accounting of how we are shaped by memory in place. This braiding of personal history with geology and the systematic erasure of “Other” in pursuit of Manifest Destiny is a stratigraphy of conscience and consciousness. What Lauret Savoy creates on the page is as breathtaking as the view she saw as a child as she stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon with her parents and learned land does not hate, people do. I stand in awe of Lauret Savoy's wisdom and compassionate intelligence. Trace is a crucial book for our time, a bound sanity, not a forgiveness, but a reckoning.” —Terry Tempest Williams, author of When Women Were Birds, Finding Beauty in a Broken World, and Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

“Must–reading for anyone who cares still about life on earth right here and now . . . In her contemplative essay, Lauret Savoy locates, relocates and celebrates the majesty of America’s na…