Through a complementary combination of prose and poetry, Lynn Davidson has crafted an emotionally charged narrative with an awareness for language, rhythm, and form. The three interconnected personal essays and two poems comprising the book share themes of personhood and relationships, often marked by loss--her mother's Alzheimer's and the disappearance of her son's father--as well as a startling self-presence--childhood memories, the experience of pregnancy, and being a mother. Written with the authorial "I," "Common Land" is a creatively crafted autobiography.