The Secret Forest

by Charles Bowden, Jack W. Dykinga

Dry tropical forests, the crossroads of desert and tropical habitats, are largely unknown outside Mexico. This beautifully illustrated volume calls attention to the endangered stand around the city of Alamos, Sonora - all that remains of the 550,000 square kilometers thriving when Cortes came ashore in the sixteenth century. The Secret Forest is part of a worldwide effort to declare the Alamos remnant an international biome.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature

141 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1993

About the author

Charles Bowden was an American non-fiction author, journalist and essayist based in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

His journalism appeared regularly in Harper’s GQ, and other national publications. He was the author of several books of nonfiction, including Down by the River.

In more than a dozen groundbreaking books and many articles, Charles Bowden blazed a trail of fire from the deserts of the Southwest to the centers of power where abstract ideas of human nature hold sway — and to the roiling places that give such ideas the lie. He claimed as his turf "our soul history, the germinal material, vast and brooding, that is always left out of more orthodox (all of them) books about America" (Jim Harrison, on Blood Orchid ).

Reviews

[Dana Gordy · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading The Overstory, I wanted to see what this book had to offer. It did not disappoint. The idea of how trees call to insects, birds, and intend to be eaten and propagated begins here. Martin and Bowden write beautifully, even poetically, about the inseparable intersection of humans and nature and wonder how can “trees and mountains [be] worth more alive”.

I started it around lunch and was finished by dinner.