Secret Life Of The City: How Nature Thrives In The Urban Wild, by Hanna Bjorgaas

I remember reading a book originally in Norwegian about geography and finding it faintly ridiculous that the author found Norwegian cartography so notable on the world scale, and also that the book was so highly awarded prizes (by an obviously biased Norwegian awards committee, unsurprisingly). However, in this particular case the author’s somewhat provincial Norwegian approach works well in that the author’s approach of making herself somewhat clueless and also seeking knowledge from the (nearly always) male experts on urban life as it pertains to Norway is endearing instead of irritating. It is perhaps not too surprising to understand that the author’s humility in not portraying herself as a know-it-all about her subject, and indeed placing herself in the same sort of position of ignorance and curiosity about the life of the city as her (likely accurately imagined) reader comes off as a very successful strategy to disarm the suspicions and ridicule of the reader, who can hardly be expected to be an expert on animal life in Norway, or indeed on the flora and fauna of cities in general, as this is an area that has been largely ignored in any kind of serious scientific exploration and study.

This book is a bit more than 200 pages long and it is divided into unnumbered chapters that are organized by the time of year in which the author explores the particular secret aspect of life in the city, which makes for a very satisfying structure. The book begins with a discussion of an old acquaintance and then discusses the author’s reflection that she knew very little of life in the city at the beginning of the year, and her observation of crows. This is followed by a discussion of the author’s appreciation of songbirds in March. April finds the author engaging in a quixotic war against ants torn between the demands of her partner and her own curiosity and desire to avoid chemicals. June finds the author exploring how sea gulls moved from an appreciation of quiet rural beaches to urban environments full of junk food. In July the author explores how plants fare in urban environments, while in October the author explores the fondness of brave bats for the city despite its dangers. In November the author seeks to understand urban lichens, while in December the author finishes the year by appreciating the independent sparrow. After that the author closes the book with a thank you, commentary on the text in an appendix, as well as notes.

There are at least a few quirks about this book that are immensely enjoyable to me as a reader in particular. One of the things I noticed is that many of the interests and experiences of the author mirrored my own. The author once worked on a cruise to Antarctica and found the lack of genuine contact between people and penguins to be disappointing, and having genuine interaction with penguins is something I would deeply enjoy. The author and I share a fascination for dealing with ants and seeking to get rid of them as best as possible without the use of deadly chemical treatments. The author explores bats and crows and their ways while I have seen myself the intelligence of crows as well as the love of bats for religious architecture, though in my case it was a church camp in a somewhat ruined state rather than a Norwegian church. Similarly, both of us were witnesses of the rise of sea gulls in our own areas, though I did not realize how unusual a sight it was when I grew up and took it as natural that gulls would be attracted to urban areas. These similarities suggest, despite the rather resolutely Norway-focused nature of the author’s own experience and knowledge, that the secret life of cities is more generally applicable than many people would first assume.