Hari Kunzru's Book Recommendations (Updated for 2026)

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1

On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer; The Diary and Itinerary of Francisco Garces (Missionary Priest) in His Travels Through Sonora, Arizona, and California, 1775-1776; Translated from an Official Contemporaneous Copy of the Original Spanish Manuscript, and

Francisco Tomás Hermenegildo Garcés

4.5

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the

Recommended by Hari Kunzru.

Hari Kunzru

Francisco Garcés was one of the real people I became interested in. He was the Franciscan monk who was sent out to oversee the mission at San Xavier del Bac, which is modern day Tucson. This place was an absolute backwater, and a cruel and oppressive place for the Indians who were attached to the mission. Garcés was quite an extraordinary character. He went exploring on his own, from tribe to tribe, right out into the desert – unarmed, often on foot, and usually carrying only a cross and an oil painting that had a picture of the Virgin on one side and on the other a particularly lurid picture of a sinner damned to hell. Having no common language with the Indians, he would attempt to convert them using this visual aid. He would do this for months at a time. He was actually the first literate person to travel across that desert and make an account of it in the 1770s, so he features in my novel. [source]

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2

The Desert: Further Studies in Natural Appearances

John C. Van Dyke, Peter Wild

3.4

Since its first appearance in 1901, John C. Van Dyke's The Desert has been considered one of the classics of American nature writing. Before its publication, Americans thought of deserts as scorpion-infested wastelands—with names like Devil's Domain and the Lands That God Forgot. All this changed as The Desert drew attention to the extraordinary beauty that existed in the American West: rolling sa

Recommended by Hari Kunzru.

Hari Kunzru

Before Van Dyke wrote this book, the general opinion of the desert was that it was a pretty terrible, scary place. People remembered the pioneer parties getting lost as they crossed the Great Basin and eating each other alive, so it was a terrifying place. He was the first person to propose that the Western desert might be beautiful, but it turned out that he was something of a charlatan. He was a Rutgers art professor in the 1880s and a total New York, urban guy. He was the art consultant for one of the railroad barons, and he announced that he’d taken this extraordinary journey across the desert in the heat. He’d battled Indians and coped with thirst and hunger, and brought back this book with incredible visual descriptions of the landscape. It turns out that he had a cousin with a ranch in the area, had taken a train trip to see his cousin, and probably didn’t do anything except a little light riding around the ranch. [source]

3

Desert Solitaire

Edward Abbey

4.4

First published in 1968, Desert Solitaire is one of Edward Abbey’s most critically acclaimed works and marks his first foray into the world of nonfiction writing. Written while Abbey was working as a ranger at Arches National Park outside of Moab, Utah, Desert Solitaire is a rare view of one man’s quest to experience nature in its purest form.

Through prose that is by turns passionate and poetic, A

Recommended by Hari Kunzru and Robert Macfarlane.

Hari Kunzru

He has a deep love for this place and he’s amusing to read because he’s such a strong personality. His writing is extraordinary. [source]

Robert Macfarlane

Abbey is full of passion, fury and contempt – a fiery fighter to shake up the sometimes over-tranquil atmosphere of nature writing. [source]

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4

Scenes in America Deserta

Reyner Banham

4.4

In "Scenes in America Deserta," Reyner Banham steps aside from his familiar role as an architectural historian and confesses himself a delighted, intrigued, but puzzled visitor to the arid lands of the American Southwest.What delights Banham most is visual pleasure, and this book is first and foremost a celebration of the pure visual response of a four-wheeled voyeur. What intrigues him is the wor

Recommended by Hari Kunzru.

Hari Kunzru

Yes, this is the British entry. Banham is known as an architecture critic. He wrote an influential book on Las Vegas. There’s a funny thing about the Western desert – a lot of the best books on or about it are by foreigners, because Americans don’t feel it’s worthy of attention. Banham, in a way, is doing something a lot of Europeans have done. He spent a lot of time in the Mojave, mostly, and when he first went there he hadn’t really got anything to compare it to. The thing that he found closest was the heath in Norfolk in the east of England where he grew up, so this guy was staring at these huge open spaces and thinking of Norfolk, which I find rather charming. There are also some rather eccentric pictures of him riding a bicycle round a dry lake with a big cowboy hat on. [source]

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5

I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed By Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World

Trevor Paglen

4.1

Updated with New Information and Additional Patches

They’re on the shoulders of all military personnel: patches showing what a soldier’s unit does. But what if that’s top secret?

“A glimpse of [the Pentagon’s] dark world through a revealing lens—patches—the kind worn on military uniforms. . . The book offers not only clues into the nature of the secret programs, but also a glimpse of zealous ma

Recommended by Hari Kunzru.

Hari Kunzru

Yes. Trevor Paglen occupies a strange position between being a geographer and artist who gets gallery shows, and a researcher with a political bent. He became interested in the geography of the West, partly because it is an area that is so underused. It’s where America goes to do stuff that is dangerous or dirty. There’s a group called The Center For Land Use Interpretation which has done a lot of work recording various sites and infrastructural things, from mining to abandoned theme parks out in the desert, and he’s doing something similar. This particular book is part of a long project of his, trying to trace the contours of the secret state. He’s combed through budgets and tried to find out what appropriations are given to secret work. This book is a side-effect of that. It’s a collection of military patches that are worn by mostly air force people. [source]