Wild Things - by Barbara Wansbrough (Paperback)

About the Book

Wild Things is a book about loss and about the radical clarity that comes when everything falls away.

Book Synopsis

"These trees, these plants I have written to you about have taught me all I needed to know about your death."

B loves M, her favorite sister.

Then M is gone--taken too young, too suddenly, under the strange and quiet shroud of the pandemic. In the absence that follows, B sets out each day into the vast wilds of Griffith Park with her dog,
walking uphill and down in search of understanding, of peace, of reconciliation.

She talks to her sister in the language of the landscape, sports with her in the shape-shifting form of the wild animals
and plants of the park--rabbits, coyotes, snakes, owls, oleander, dodder, nettle, walnut. She leaves gifts--shells, stones, tokens of memory--and finds them answered in unexpected ways.

B now finds herself open to the mystery of change--willing to release old habits, weary truths, impossible expectations, and the comforting fictions of family. She revisits her life as an anxious and dutiful daughter, sister, wife, mother, and artist,
pausing to linger, to glance sideways, to laugh. She walks onward, guiding us gently toward a place we all must reach--where much can be left behind and a new wisdom awaits. And then she writes.

Wild Things is the result: 59 letters to her sister, one for each year of her life, alive with grief, wonder, and transformation. A book about loss and about the radical clarity that comes when everything falls away--a luminous, unforgettable work.

Review Quotes

Resplendent with hard-won hope and unvanquished love, this book is both a meditation and an invitation.--Charley Burlock "Oprah Daily"

A Beautiful Memoir--John Self "The Times"

Lyrical, openhearted expression and naturalist insights make this a fine addition to the literature of magical thinking.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

That grief and a curiosity about, and passion for, the natural world should be inextricable Wild Things makes abundantly clear. Wansbrough's voice is lucid, straightforward, and strangely visionary... Wild Things is not merely consoling, but a kind of inspiration.--Adam Phillips, author of On Giving Up

Wild Things gripped me like a series of tender letters from a dearest friend... an exquisite book that lifts the spirit and reminds us our loved ones walk alongside us as closely as sorrow does. Unforgettable and life-changing.--Naomi Shihab Nye, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award

Wild Things is a strange, beautiful, sorrowful book--a love-song to sisterhood and a hymn to the consolation that comes from opening heart and eyes to the nearby wild world.--Robert MacFarlane, author of The Old Ways

About the Author

Barbara Wansbrough was born in England and lives in California. Wild Things is her first book.