The Pine Barrens

Most people think of the American state of New Jersey as a suburban-industrial corridor that sits just west of New York City. But in the centre of the state lies a vast wilderness - larger than most national parks - which has been known since the seventeenth century as the Pine Barrens.

In The Pine Barrens, McPhee uses his uncanny skills as a journalist to explore the history of the region and to describe the people - and their distinctive folklore - who call it home. Including one who can navigate the immensely dense woods by sheer memory, and another who responds to McPhee’s knock on his door with a pork chop in one hand, a raw onion in the other, and the greeting ‘Come in. Come in. Come on the hell in.’

With a new foreword by Iain Sinclair