Entangled Edens by Candace Slater, University of California Press,
£19.95, ISBN 0520226410
WE ALL have our image of the Amazon. For some it is a romantic place where
the world’s greatest river, its largest rainforest and its most diverse
ecosystems coexist in primeval harmony. For others, it is a place echoing to the
sound of chainsaws, turned to ashes by slash-and-burn farmers and defiled by
mercury spewing from gold mines. As Candace Slater admirably shows in
Entangled Edens, the Amazon has always been a repository for our
dreams and our nightmares.
For Europeans, the Amazon dream began with tales of…
