Atlas dziur i szczelin

In his own words, Michał Książek wrote Atlas of Nooks and Crannies “for everyone who searches for nature in the city”. While it is becoming increasingly difficult to find, especially in hot, polluted terrains covered in concrete, Książek argues that no city is so impenetrable that it can’t be occupied by plants. The areas of Warsaw (Świętokrzyska Park, Pole Mokotowskie), Kraków (Planty Park), Łódź (Piotrkowska Street) and other cities that the author studies are inhabited by various seeds, weeds and self-seeding plants, as well as bees, wasps, ants and beetle larvae. Families of birds build their nests in nest boxes, although these can become ecological traps. Insects play a major role in the active exchange of kinetic energy. Well-organised animal and plant communities form around the lindens and other trees that Książek observes. The author’s gaze is well attuned to various sizes: mosses and lichens, which he calls “urban coral reefs”, are as important an element of visible nature as large trees or swarms of insects.

However, this is not just a book about how things appear. During his urban wanderings, Książek has the climate and environmental crisis at the forefront of his mind. He writes about drought, heat, plastic, concrete, and the junk food on which the city birds feed. He ridicules the many human practices born of ignorance or reluctance to make unprofitable investments in nature. In doing all this, he describes his experiences in a vivid and colourful way, with daring linguistic invention.