The Precarious Walk

From a backwoods church in Arkansas to the disappeared town of St. Thomas, buried beneath the waters of Lake Mead, essayist Phyllis Barber travels roads both internal and external, reflecting upon place and perspective, ambition and loss. As a child growing up in the Mojave Desert, she witnesses the massive power of the Hoover Dam and a fiery rip in the sky from the Nevada Test Site. As an adult, Barber searches for meaning through music, movement, and human connection, examining her Mormon upbringing, the profound ways people and landscape impact one another, and the sudden loss of her first child.