Nightfaring: In Search of the Disappearing Darkness

A heartfeltexploration of the night on Earth, following a travel journalist and dark sky advocate around the globe as she seeks out dark places in our ever-brightening world.  

People, plants and animals all depend on the natural night—both its darkness and its starlight—for so much, from regulating our sleep cycles to providing the inspiration for myths and legends across the millennia. But darkness is disappearing, and with it, our view of the stars. The constant glow of streetlights, of headlights streaming down highways, and wasteful glare from skyscrapers left shining all night have created so much light pollution that the majority of Americans can no longer see the Milky Way or experience the restful embrace of a natural night. As the dark becomes ever more elusive, it is a critical moment to stop, look up, and consider what we lose with the disappearing stars.  

In Nightfaring, Megan Eaves-Egenes travels around the world to better understand our deep connection to the dark. Finding solace in the stars at a time of difficulty in her own life, she embarks on a journey from New Zealand to Uzbekistan, Italy to Japan, Germany to the Himalaya, exploring the many ways that humans have depended on, feared, and mythologized darkness.

Blending travel and nature writing with history and self-discovery, Megan writes of how the stars have helped her chart the course of her own life—just as they’ve guided humankind for as long as we’ve slept beneath them.