“[Believers] grapples with the question of how to go forward in the shadow of endings ― not only our own, but the endings of species and ecosystems, of cultures and of language . . . The question is not of what we face but how we can face it bravely and creatively — how we can curb the destructions we’ve wrought and how, as individuals and societies, we can struggle against their desolations and forestall their seeming inevitability.”
―Lydia Millet, Los Angeles Times
“Lisa Wells follows a cast of unruly and colorful characters who believe their work on the land and with one another is a healing force . . . She never loses sight of her inspired objective, to restore and revive what she refers to as 'the promised land’… The urgency to live sustainably stems from the cascading woes of collapsing ecosystems, and Wells implores her readers to start thinking creatively."
―Gretel Ehrlich, The New York Times Book Review
“So few books now feel like they have anything to do with the future, or anything consequential to do with the present, and in the rare event that they do, they only compound my sense of constant dread. Lisa Wells’s Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World is a precious, merciful exception, a work that welds hope and despair, written by a narrator whom I instantly trusted. It made enduring feel more bearable” —Charlotte Shane, for Bookforum
“Wells takes heart in the human tendency to tell and make sense of our lives through storytelling… Although she preserves a sense of hope for a better world, this blend of reportage, history, philosophy, and memoir is no rosy prescriptive narrative. Rather, Wells notes, ‘there is a surplus of terror and delusion in the ether, but spare few visions of how you and I, relatively ordinary people, might live otherwise. I believe the future of the world depends on those visions.’”
―Lauren LeBlanc, an Observer Best Book of the Summer
“Wells stakes an outlier position. The resulting chronicle of environmental crises and the often radical actions some are taking to combat them is freshly informative and thought-provoking.” —Colleen Mondor, Booklist
“Creating a livable future isn’t going to be easy, and in Believers, Lisa Wells confronts that head-on. She profiles renegade groups working on creative ways to face climate change, and she digs into the very human struggles that come from trying to build a utopia, or at least a new way of living. The results are gritty, vivid, and real.” —Heather Hansman, Outside Magazine
“Shocking and vivid… [Wells’s] descriptions of climate change capture the harsh reality of devastation… Climate-minded readers should take note of this roving account of perseverance.”
―Publishers Weekly
“Wells offers no pat prescriptions for nurturing 'lived relationships with water and plants and soil'―only an ardent hope that humans will persist in 'fighting and reconciling and reaching across the divide of mutual misapprehension' to save their world. An urgent message gently conveyed.”
―Kirkus Reviews
“This impassioned plea and call to action will spark the interest of anyone who cares for our environment.” —Rachel Owens, Library Journal
“... a thought-provoking and heady mix of memoir, journalism and philosophy ... The characters she profiles are varied and fascinating, and their stories may resonate with older readers who remember their own idealism during the 1960s counterculture movement ...a rich mosaic of perspectives on life in the 21st century. Believers is a reckoning with climate change and a testimony about how to live on our threatened planet that will engage thoughtful citizens everywhere.” —Deborah Hopkinson, Bookpage
“… a sympathetic look at people on the fringes of our death-spiraling society who are actively working toward making possible futures. Deeply nuanced and beautifully written, Believers is uncommonly comfortable with ambiguity and offers no prescriptions, just a clear-eyed view of what it means to be alive in an emergency. A provocative and vital book.” —Stephen Sparks, Point Reyes Books
“Thought-provoking and capacious… Surveying a range of art and literature including Gilgamesh, the Bible, and Salgado’s photos of Brazilian mines, she tracks the shifting relationship between humanity and nature; from this conceptual foundation she explores a range of alternatives to mainstream capitalist business as usual, from desert “outlaws” living off the grid to alternative spiritual communities to environmentalists rewilding devastated landscapes. Ultimately, her fascinating book leaves us hopeful.”
―Laurie Greer, Bookseller, Politics & Prose Bookstore
"brilliant, mind-opening … Wells's curious yet fierce approach to our shared existential crisis reminded me so much of Rilke's exhortation to "love the questions." A prescriptive list of Things To Do To End Climate Change is very much what this book is not—what it is: A breath of hope, an opened heart, a reminder that there are many ways to love the world, and loving is about as close to saving as we can hope to get.”―Hannah DeCamp, Bookseller, Avid Bookshop
“An aggressive, persuasive call to arms about fighting climate change . . . We need the kind of jolt that Believers gives us if we’re ever going to become, finally, active caretakers of our planet.”
―Andrée Rose Catalfamo, Washington Independent Review of Books
“[Believers] accepts the huge stakes at play, but responds with hope for transformation and asks readers to consider how they can make an impact and ensure a better inheritance for generations to come.” —Danika Ellis, BookRiot
“[Wells is] a skilled reporter . . . [Believers is] beautifully written.”
―Max Norman, Undark
“We are living in an extreme moment, and one where it’s very hard to know what effective action looks like against crises of a scale we’ve not before encountered. These accounts of people trying to grapple with that reality are sometimes inspiring and often cautionary, and always a spur to thinking about how the rest of us might accomplish the most we can.”
―Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
“Believers is meticulously researched and reasoned and lays out a vast and sophisticated vision like no other writer since Charles Bowden. . . she seems to occupy a kind of vanguard, questioning orthodoxies whose ready acceptance has taken the teeth out of not only the language but the radical visions that ought to reshape our lives… an essential document of our time. ―Charles D'Ambrosio, author of Loitering
“This adventurous and outlandish book asks us to imagine a relationship to the land that precedes human memory, an act that requires us to shed our idealism in favor of a more radical leap of faith. In that wild leap it arrives, miraculously, a few steps down the path to wisdom.”
―Maurice Manning, author of Railsplitter
“Everyone who lives on this earth needs to read this book… Wells is whip-smart and insightful, taking us along on her own quest to find another way to be. We grow with her, immersed in the poignant, hopeful, and heartbreaking stories of people she meets as she attempts to answer what has been her life’s refrain: How shall we live?”
―Tessa Fontaine, author of The Electric Woman
“Lisa Wells’s writing is brilliant; her conclusions are profound. If you can take only one book with you while wading through the wreckage of the Anthropocene, this is the one.”
―Kate Lebo, author of The Book of Difficult Fruit
"Beautifully written ... Believers calls upon us to consider our actions and, ultimately, delivers hope." –The Weekend Australian
"Lisa Wells offers a shot of hope... (Wells) discovered the behind-the-scenes work of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. These are the eponymous “believers”, subject of this passionate, uncompromising group portrait... For Wells, it’s time for ordinary people to stop thinking in terms of leaders and prime ministers, and think local." –The Sydney Morning Herald
"Believers is Lisa Wells’ thought-provoking response to the paradox of our times: how do we prepare for the future in the face of environmental change?… we’re able to see that a positive vision for the future and healthier relationships with our natural environments is within reach." –Happy Mag, Best New Books
"[Wells'] journey through the colourful diversity of visionaries, anarchists, and environmental patriots is chronicled with an engaging sense of patience, wit, and wisdom... Please find this beautifully valuable book and read it. Soon!" –Ian McFarlane, Best Book of 2021, The Canberra Times
“You know that beautiful moment when you are walking with someone, and you put out your hand and without even looking, the other person takes it? Reading Believers is like that. Brave, fascinating, and honest, Lisa Wells not only documents a generation on the precipice of climate change and all the necessary truth telling that comes with understanding such destruction, but she also has done so with warmth and intimacy, as if to say, ‘Whatever happens, let’s face it together.’”
―Anna Krien, author of Night Games and Act of Grace
“Lisa Wells invites us into an astonishingly rich traverse through the backblocks of an empire in decay. Populated by an unforgettable cast of loners, losers, visionaries, and people just doing their best, Believers is somehow able to capture the immensity of the moment in the smallest of details. It sandblasts back the surface layers of superficial Western ‘environmentalism’ to reveal lineages of protection and defiance hundreds of generations deep. Real change never comes from the sensible center but from the raggedy edge; on these broken terrains, Wells is the best guide we could have hoped for. Wry, fierce, and scathingly honest. For anyone who needs a shot of hope in these sideways times, take a road trip in the company of genuine believers.”
―Scott Ludlam, author of Full Circle: A Search for the World That Comes Next, former Senator and Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens
“Idealism and egos clash horns in Lisa Wells’ fascinating odyssey into the hidden worlds of fringe-dwelling environmentalists. Equally adept at detailing the ferocity and fervor of her human subjects as the botanical beauty of the land itself, Wells is a trustworthy guide into this wilderness.”
―Jenny Valentish, author of Woman of Substances and Everything Harder Than Everyone Else