Books can, and do, change lives. Something I experienced firsthand in 1999, when my wife, Julia, and I read a glowing review in the RSPB’s magazine of a book by Giorgos Catsadorakis called Prespa: A Story for Man and Nature. In just a few paragraphs, the reviewer had so convincingly distilled this place known as Prespa in northern Greece for us that we decided to order the book right away.