Most of the essays in High Tide in Tucson explore humans’ place in a larger ecological context. This is sometimes achieved through direct comparison: In the titular essay, Kingsolver equates her transplantation to Arizona with that of the hermit crab Buster. She imagines herself as a crab, in the “shell” of her tiny car, setting out from Kentucky to an unknown future. Both Buster and Kingsolver manage to establish themselves in their new home and find a routine despite the unfamiliar surroundings. By the end of the book, both are still surviving and are each setting up for a new phase of life, Buster with his new skin and Kingsolver with her new husband.

In other essays, Kingsolver finds deeper connections, arguing that people are part of—not living in—the natural world. Key to Kingsolver is the concept of roots. For thousands of years, as human culture developed, people shaped their lives around the resources available in the specific places where they found themselves. These ancient humans occupied a niche like every other creature on the planet. For instance, the essay “Creation Myths” describes a cave of relics surrounding a miraculously formed pool in the middle of the desert, evidence of generations of inhabitants.