Based on the available information, "The Guardians" by Lucy Dougan explores several themes and topics that can help you draw connections to other books:
* **Genetics and Inheritance:** The book begins with a poem that explores the vertical chain of genetic history, which is one of the book's obsessions 【1】【2】. The book also touches on the roles and genetics we inherit 【3】.
* **Memory and Longing:** The poems unite past and present through memory and longing 【4】.
* **Absence and Presence:** The book subtly picks up on the themes of absence and presence and how they operate simultaneously 【4】.
* **Guardianship and the Wild:** Dougan explores the notion of guardianship with regard to the wild, and how wilderness can also be present 【5】.
* **Domesticity:** The work remains rooted in the domestic, with a universe pulsing in each observation 【6】.
* **Time:** Time is stretched between the present and an infinite regression of the past 【6】.
* **Roles:** The book explores the roles that we inherit 【3】.
* **Parenting:** Parenting is one of the key themes in the book 【3】.
* **Animals:** Animals is one of the key themes in the book 【3】.