Polly Atkin (Some of Us Just Fall) brings a poet's sensibility to a contemplative study of nature and self with her memoir The Company of Owls. From her home in the village of Grasmere in England's Lake District, Atkin can hear tawny owls calling to one another; on short walks, she feels privileged to watch them hunting, nesting, raising their young. During and after the Covid-19 lockdown, she marveled at their lives, so little known to us, and mused on isolation, companionship, humans' relationship to the rest of the natural world, and more. Not an ornithologist by training, Atkin feels drawn to her poorly understood subject, associated with both wisdom and death, night-dwelling but sun-loving: "This book is about owls, but it is also about me."
Atkin, who lives with several chronic illnesses that limit her mobility and ability to work in traditional ways, found herself under lockdown questioning the nature of solitude and our many reactions to it. She related to what she perceives as the owls' need for both separation and togetherness. In her own insomnia, she connected to their apparent affinity for both darkness and light. She watched a trio of owlets navigate siblinghood, and worked to resist what felt like anthropomorphism.
Atkin takes special care with both language and detail. The Company of Owls balances a careful focus on the hyperlocal owls surrounding Atkin's home, and a survey approach to the history of owls in the region, the humans who study them, and the owls Atkin encounters online via friends and algorithms. Atkin's lovely, reflective memoir reminds all readers to slow down, listen, and find joy. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia