- Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize
- Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award
- Winner of the Hawthornden Prize
“The Snow Geese moved me as have few other recent books. No one who reads it is likely to continue to look at the world in the same way.” Times Literary Supplement
“A narrative so sublime and unique it's captivating. Every sentence is a joy to read. I've read The Snow Geese straight through twice, and I will read it again.” Calgary Herald
“William Fiennes is a magician with language, a narrative genius, and one of the keenest and most lucid observers of birds – and American culture, and human nature – that I’ve read. This book is a shout-out-loud treasure.” Rick Bass, author of The Sky, The Stars, The Wilderness
“An adventure that is out-and-out sublime in its language, its sights and sounds, and its meditations.” Seattle Times
“One page and I was hooked. Soon I was reading with a pen in hand, just to underline all the seamless transitions, the fresh surprising similes, the very exact and precise observations. Fiennes is a very fine writer and this book is pure delight.” Peter Carey, author of Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang
“This is a work of passion and knowledge that goes right to the soul of farflung places. The Snow Geese feels ‘historical’ yet at the same time has emotional immediacy, humour and tremendous love for the planet. It’s a wondrous journey. Fiennes’s evocation of the Arctic is brilliant, deeply moving. He simply knows so much, observes the natural world with such elegant turn-of-mind, writes so beautifully, I only lasted a day between finishing The Snow Geese and beginning to read it straight through again. Fiennes powerfully persuades heart and mind, and makes them fly.” Howard Norman, author of The Bird Artist and The Museum Guard
“A beautifully quiet, beautifully solitary and beautifully reflective book... wonderfully tactful observation... quietly funny. The Snow Geese is studded with constant, small perceptual triumphs.” Evening Standard
“The Snow Geese is an inspired work of natural history, and a poetic meditation on leaving and homing, wandering and belonging. With this beautiful, haunting debut, William Fiennes joins that small, very special band of writer-explorers &ndsash; Emerson and Thoreau, Annie Dillard and Bruce Chatwin – who give us another pair of eyes: he has renewed the variety and wonder of the world.” Marina Warner, author of The Lost Father and Indigo
“The Snow Geese is enjoyable as a travelogue, as an essay on the migratory patterns of birds and as a rethinking of the Ulysses saga, but Fiennes’s exceptional talent lies in his ability as a wordsmith... The Snow Geese is William Fiennes’s first book, and it is a superlative debut, delicate and profound and utterly readable.” Tablet
“A rare and painfully lovely work.” Amazon.com
“A remarkable addition to the body of travel writing... Fiennes is a demon with words... his descriptive prose has a hard-edged brightness which startles and delights.” Financial Times
“One of the most engrossing travel books I have read in years...” Conde Nast Traveller
“As hauntingly written a book about natural history as one is likely to find this year.” Scotsman
“A rare travel book, and not only for the outstanding literary promise of its author... The Snow Geese is the debut of a striking talent.” Guardian
“The descriptions of the geese and their environment are jaw-droppingly beautiful. But Fiennes’s most remarkable talent is for describing the quotidian with such freshness that it is like seeing the world for the first time... This is one of those rare books where time and again you find yourself gasping at the author's mastery of the 'phrase juste'... It will win him many prizes.” Mail on Sunday
“A wonderful, binoculared bird odyssey... a profoundly moving account of joy returning, of one man’s rediscovery of the world by dwelling on some of its beauties. Books such as The Snow Geese succeed by driving us back into the fields and wilds that inspired them, binoculars in hand.” Sunday Times
“[A] truly beautiful book... startlingly evocative... As much as the birds, and the engrossing sidetrips Fiennes takes into ornithological history and the evolving science of migration, it is the people he meets, listens to and meticulously records that make this book so expansive and intriguing... All this tells you is that he has written a brilliant book involving nature. But Fiennes stands on his own, as a unique new voice worth listening to, whatever subject he may choose next.” Globe and Mail (Canada)
“An inspired work of natural history and travel... Fiennes’s book is a classic of exceptional reporting by a talented writer.” Irish Independent
“Fiennes has a brilliant descriptive style, and his sharp eye and ear and his inventive similes take us everywhere with him... With William Fiennes an unmistakably gifted new writer appears on the scene.” Times
“A terrific book, simple, elegantly written and modest-toned. Fiennes has a poet’s eye for nuance and detail, and a winning turn of phrase... The Snow Geese is a delight.” Spectator
“On the Road with birds and landscape instead of marijuana and jazz.” Jim Crace, The Week
