Your Wild and Precious Life : On grief, hope and rebellion

by Jensen, Liz | Political activism
Published 07/03/2024 by Canongate Books in the United Kingdom
Hardback | 240 pages
144 x 222 x 25mm | 348g

My son's death will never make sense to me. But it has taught me that it's possible to find meaning, collectively and individually, in the loss of what we love. And in finding them, transform. Resilience is a seed that we all bear inside us. It germinates in emergencies. It sets down roots in astonishing and unexpected ways. And if we notice it, and tend to it, it blooms.

Liz Jensen's son, a zoologist, conservationist and ecological activist, was twenty-five when he collapsed and died unexpectedly. She fell apart. As she grieved, forest fires raged, coral reefs deteriorated, CO2 emissions rose and fossil fuels burned.

Your Wild and Precious Life is the story of how a mother rebuilt herself, reoriented her life and rediscovered the enchantment of the living world. Set against the backdrop of climate and ecological catastrophe, it's an argument for agency, legacy and the wild possibility of hope after devastation.