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

(Hardback, Main)

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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.

Reviews

'This book is made of diamonds and tears, glittering with brilliance, a work of priceless insight' - JAY GRIFFITHS

'Liz Jensen is an amazing writer and there is huge force and power in this story of reckoning with loss' - CATHY RENTZENBRINK, author of THE LAST ACT OF LOVE and A MANUAL FOR HEARTACHE

'A clear-eyed, passionate and beautifully written account of love and loss. It is no small measure of Jensen's talent that a book about such a terrible and sudden event is heart-breaking yet compulsively readable, uplifting - even humorous at times: and ultimately, it is a call to action over the most pressing global issue that confronts human survival as we know it' - LOUISE DOUGHTY, author of APPLE TREE YARD

'Fierce and fizzing with life. It faces the monster of parental loss absolutely head on and turns it into a joyous celebration. Raph / Iggy will carry on living because of this book' - MARK HADDON, author of THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME

'A deeply moving, powerful, resonant book about the enormity of love and grief, and what it is to be alive yet mortal. Liz Jensen writes profoundly about how the impossible pain of losing a child can somehow coexist with joy, meaning and even happiness. Her meditation on 'the fierce life in grief' is beautiful' - RACHEL CLARKE, author of YOUR LIFE IN MY HANDS, DEAR LIFE and BREATHTAKING

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Author Bio

Liz Jensen is the author of eight acclaimed novels including The Ninth Life of Louis Drax and the climate thrillers The Rapture and The Uninvited. She is a founder of the ecological campaign group Writers Rebel and the creator of the Rebel Library. She lives in Copenhagen.@LizJensenWriter | lizjensen.com