It has lost two-thirds of its land since 1850, and still its shoreline retreats by fifteen feet a year-meaning this storied place will likely succumb first among U.S. The very water that has long sustained it is erasing the island day by day, wave by wave. Yet for all of its long history, and despite its tenacity, Tangier is disappearing. They are separated from their countrymen by the nation’s largest estuary, and a twelve-mile boat trip across often tempestuous water-the same water that for generations has made Tangier’s fleet of small fishing boats a chief source for the rightly prized Chesapeake Bay blue crab, and has lent the island its claim to fame as the softshell crab capital of the world. Mapped by John Smith in 1608, settled during the American Revolution, the tiny sliver of mud is home to 470 hardy people who live an isolated and challenging existence, with one foot in the 21st century and another in times long passed. Tangier Island, Virginia, is a community unique on the American landscape. An NPR All Things Considered and Axios 'Book Club' pick.

'THE BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR.' - Stephen L.

'A MASTERFUL NARRATIVE.' - Christian Science Monitor.

'BEAUTIFUL, HAUNTING AND TRUE.' - Hampton Sides A brilliant, soulful, and timely portrait of a two-hundred-year-old crabbing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay as it faces extinction.Ī BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Washington Post, NPR, Outside, Smithsonian, Popular Science, Bloomberg, Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Review of Books, Science Friday, and Kirkus

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