Stanfords Adult Book of the Month June 2016` Sixty Degrees North is a story that we tell, both to ourselves & to others. It is a story about where
- & perhaps also who
- we are.` The sixtieth parallel marks a kind of borderl&. It wraps itself around the lower reaches of Finl&, Sweden & Norway; it crosses the tip of Greenland & of South-central Alaska; it cuts the great spaces of Russia & Canada in half. The parallel also passes through Shetl&, at the very top of the British Isles. In Sixty Degrees North, Malachy Tallack explores the places that share this latitude, beginning & ending in Shetl&, where he has spent most of his life. The book focuses on the landscapes & natural environments of the parallel, & the way that people have interacted with those landscapes. It explores themes of wildness & community, of isolation & engagement, of exile & memory. In addition, Sixty Degrees North is also a deeply personal book, which begins with the author`s loss of his father & his troubled relationship with Shetl&. Informed by the journeys described, it moves towards a kind of resolution: an acceptance of loss, & ultimately a love of the place Tallack calls `home`.