A brilliant, soulful, and timely portrait of a two-hundred-year-old crabbing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay as it faces extinction.

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Washington Post, NPR, Outside, Smithsonian, Bloomberg, Science Friday, Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Review of Books, and Kirkus.

Tangier Island, a 1.3-square-mile spit of land in the Chesapeake Bay off the coast of Virginia, is a community unique on the American landscape. Most of its residents speak in an English dialect passed down from the original 17th century settlers. The local economy revolves around blue crabs: nearly everyone is connected in some way to the crabbing business, which has lent Tangier its claim to fame as “the soft shell crab capital of the world.” And Tangier is disappearing. It loses 15 feet of shoreline each year, meaning the island is likely to be the United States’ first climate change casualty, and soon: some experts believe that, barring widespread and extraordinarily expensive intervention from the U.S. government, Tangier could be uninhabitable in 20 years.

Chesapeake Requiem is acclaimed journalist Earl Swift’s inside look at the past, present, and tenuous future of Tangier Island. Told through the individual stories of crabbers and others who make their living from the sea, and weaving in Tangier’s remarkable past, the result is a poignant look at a world that has, quite nearly, gone by—and a leading-edge report on the coming fate of countless coastal communities.

Enter for your chance to win 1 of 10 copies of Chesapeake Requiem by Earl Swift and a Dey Street Books tote bag. This sweepstakes ends February 4, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. EST.