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About the author
David Backes, author of A Wilderness Within,
the national award-winning biography of famed naturalist / author /
environmental leader Sigurd F. Olson. He has produced three other titles in the
Olson series and two earlier books. Listening Point is his first novel.
David’s lifelong connection to nature began when he
was just two years old and heard the haunting cry of gulls over the Gulf of
Mexico. Family trips to national parks and other wild places in the U.S. and
Canada, and frequent visits to his county park on the shore of Lake Michigan
filled him with awe and wonder. In 1963 his family discovered Ely, Minnesota,
and the canoe country at its doorstep. That experience shaped his life. Over
many years and visits, and one year working as a reporter for the Ely Echo
newspaper, David came to discover not only a wilderness that stirred his soul,
but a direction in life.
That direction eventually led to Sigurd Olson, who personally
encouraged David at a time when he most needed it. He went back to school and
earned a doctoral degree in environmental communication at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, then spent a career as a professor at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He loved teaching, but is a writer at heart, so these days
you will find him most often in the little writing room at his home in
southeast Wisconsin or soaking up inspiration along the shore of Lake Michigan.
You can read David’s blog and find out more about his
books at DavidJBackes.com.
Summary
From the author of A Wilderness Within, the national award-winning biography of Sigurd F. Olson, comes this novel (the first in a trilogy) that captures the natural philosophy and environmental advocacy of one of our nation's leading nature writers from the 20th century.
As the climate crisis fuels mass migration and social unrest in the 2060s, Andrew Hochevar, a young priest in northern Minnesota, has a mysterious, powerful encounter one hot August day at Sigurd Olson's Listening Point, near the gateway to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The experience upends his traditional understanding of God, the Church, and his own calling. It also propels him along a spiritual journey that brings healing to the sick, puts him at odds with his bishop, and threatens a growing movement of white supremacists.
