A high desert hymn to the American West and its elusive trout.
"Fly Fishing in the 21st Century" is a raw and lyrical journey through the lonely trout streams of the Great Basin—and through the clutter and contradictions of contemporary life. In 22 essays that veer from the pastoral to the gonzo-esque, writer and photographer Matthew Shane Brown uses the act of fly fishing as both escape and lens, fishing for meaning in a world that often feels devoid of it.
With a tone by turns reflective, irreverent, and gently irascible, Brown explores the solitude of forgotten bluelines, the beauty of empty landscapes, and the uneasy tension between tradition and modernity. The landscapes are rendered in prose as vivid as a desert sunset, while the fish—when they come—are never just fish.
This is not a how-to manual. It’s a restless, searching meditation on wilderness, disconnection, and what remains of grace in a distracted world. For readers of John Gierach, Aldo Leopold, Thomas McGuane, Hunter S. Thompson, and Robert M. Pirsig, "Fly Fishing in the 21st Century" offers a fiercely original voice and a perspective grounded in the American West—but aimed squarely at the heart.
