Body of Water: A Sage, a Seeker, and the World’s Most Alluring Fish

Dombrowski (Earth Again), a poet and fly-fishing guide, pays a lyrical, genre-defying tribute to the angling legend largely responsible for popularizing the cultish sport of bonefishing: David Pinder Sr., “the head guide and cornerstone of one of the world’s most fabled sporting lodges.” In the throes of depression and financial hardship, Dombrowski accepts a friend’s invitation for an all-inclusive fishing expedition to Grand Bahama Island. He has little idea just how revelatory his journey will prove. Encountering local fishermen and stunning seascapes, as well as embarking on quests for the elusive bonefish—whose lightning speed and uncanny talent for camouflage have earned it the nickname “gray ghost”—Dombrowski gleans many lessons about ecology, economy, and the relationship between the two. Some are cautionary: decades of fishing have severely damaged Pinder’s eyesight, for example, and commercial overdevelopment has led to grave habitat loss for the bonefish and other local species. Yet there is also much to celebrate, including Pinder’s virtuosity with a fly rod and the “philosophical foundation” a life of fishing can provide. Drawing on Caribbean history and the evolution of fly-fishing, and interweaving Pinder’s miraculous memories with his own redemptive story, Dombrowski’s foray into nonfiction proves as thematically complex, finely wrought, and profoundly life-affirming as his poetry. [em](Oct.) [/em]