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Summary: A brilliant, photoessay about a wonderful place
Review: Madagascar is bigger than Texas. This fourth biggest island in the world, also known as the "Eighth Continent", is located 200 miles off Southeast Africa. It's as remote from the United States as you can get. In an absolutely scintillating, evocative photo essay, prominent wildlife and nature photographer Frans Lanting explores the essence of this little-known land. Lanting's four-color photographs, in large format, are almost surrealistic at times, ever exciting, and never repetitive. From the cover onward, the show chameleons, lemurs, bottle-shaped baobab trees, needlepoint karst landscapes, eroded fields, and matchless vistas in an unending procession of the strange, eerie, and beautiful. You will be amazed as each page turns to the next. An excellent written narrative compliments the effort well. The title is double-edged for, as well as being a fascinating anachronism, Madagascar is running out of time in our generation. Human encroachment is rapidly destroying the habitat of numerous creatures found nowhere else. The Elephant Bird, Aepyornis, whose giant egg is being held in a man's arms in the book's cover photo is gone. So is the giant lemur. Others may soon go, as well. This was, and would be, an unspeakable tragedy. So read the book and enjoy. Then see what you can do to save at least some of this fascinating paradise. I rate this book very highly.
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