Island Year

In her first book, Island in the Sound, Heckman brought to life Anderson Island in Puget Sound, its people, its history, and its sadly vanishing way of life. Now, in this book, she brings the same clarity of vision, warmth, and insight to the natural life of her island, recording the cycle of the seasons as an appreciative and articulate observer.

This is a diary of the natural world where the same things happen again and again but are always new. Each month brings surprises, expected or not: the blossoming of the wild red flower currant in March, the appearance of a pod of killer whales in July. Mrs. Heckman’s gift to the reader, as in all of the best nature writing, is to let us see it through her eyes, as if never seen before.

But the developers have arrived, and the natural world of the Island is as threatened as the way of life of its people. Mrs. Heckman knows that Anderson Island is not the Grand Canyon, that its destruction will never arouse great public indignation, but while it exists as one of the ’little wild places’ she is able to share it and her love for it.