WINNER OF THE NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARD
The True Story of Three Lives, Three Cultures, and the Search for Heaven on Earth
Pure Land
McGivney's reporting sets a new standard for how humane and thoughtful outdoor true crime should be. – Outside magazine
Pure Land is the story of the most brutal murder in the history of the Grand Canyon and how McGivney's quest to investigate the victim's life and death wound up guiding the author through her own life-threatening crisis. On this journey stretching from the southern tip of Japan to the bottom of Grand Canyon, and into the ugliest aspects of human behavior, Pure Land offers proof of the healing power of nature and of the resiliency of the human spirit.
For more go to: PURELANDBOOK.COM
PRAISE FOR PURE LAND
“Pure Land is so gripping, so well reported, and so well told that it deserves space on the bookshelf next to major commercial successes like Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild and Terry Tempest Williams’ Refuge.”
— Outside
“A riveting read.”
— The Durango Herald
“McGivney exposes the fallacy that is America, both by illustrating the decline of once-prosperous Native American nations and by exposing the ugly underbelly of her own upper-middle class childhood.”
— Flyaway Journal
“McGivney takes the reader on a journey through little known areas, onto Native American reservations, and to Japan. She takes people into the heart of domestic violence and how three people’s lives had three different outcomes because of it. It is a moving journey and a journey worth taking.”
— Navajo-Hopi Observer
"There is such tragic irony here. The very things that Japanese tourist Tomomi Hanamure is so deeply passionate about--the wild, stark, beautiful American West and Native American culture--are what leads to her violent death. Around this single horrific event Annette McGivney has masterfully woven three separate, highly personal narratives."
— S. C. Gwynne, Author of Empire of the Summer Moon, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
"McGivney intuitively grounds her narrative while exploring humanity's roots of culture and origins of character, like the light of the sun awakening each intricate layer of earth in the deepest of canyons. She is a storyteller of the highest caliber, with a style reminiscent of Jon Krakauer's journalistic skill and unmistakable purpose."
— Carine McCandless, author of The Wild Truth, the New York Times bestselling follow-up to Into the Wild
