The Dark Heart of Every Wild
Thingis a compelling parable about forgiveness while evoking both the dangers and the beauty of nature and faraway places.
The
author, Joseph Fasano, is an acclaimed poet whose prose rings like
poetry—stunning and poignant. Much of the story takes place in remote places,
places I have always loved and longed for, and destinations where one can retreat
from the world.
These places are sometimes called “thin places,” places writer Mark
D. Roberts described as “where the boundary between heaven and earth is especially
thin, a place where we can sense the divine more readily.”
When I was growing
up, the Pennsylvania forest was near, and I loved walking alone in it with my
dog, sometimes disappearing for hours, worrying my mother. Fasano’s novel
reminded me in many ways of those times when I longed to lose the world for a
while. And at the same time, a chance to reflect and contemplate myself, to be
one with nature, a deeply personal, nearly spiritual experience.
Fiction. Deep in the mountains of British Columbia, across an unforgiving landscape, one man's pursuit of a fabled mountain lion leads him into the furthest reaches of himself. As he struggles to confront the wilderness surrounding him--from the baying hounds to the relentless northern snows--he journeys into his own haunted memories: a life of wild horses and ballet, fishing skiffs and blizzards, tropical seas and dolphins. Through wind, snow, and the depths of grief, he asks what price he is willing to exact on a world that ravages what we love, and whether redemption awaits those who learn to forgive.…
This book is a unique and dynamic collection of
Merton's writings on nature, arranged for reflection and meditation. The
Trappist monk and activist remains an inspiration in many ways, far after he died in 1968.
Merton delves into the divine and its
connection to the natural world. These reflections are poetic, revealing, and
deeply moving.
First published in 2003 and now available in paperback to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of Thomas Merton's birth, When the Trees Say Nothing has sold more than 60,000 copies and continually inspires readers with its unique collection of Merton's luminous writings on nature, arranged for reflection and meditation.
Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk, author, poet, social commentator, and perhaps the most influential and widely published spiritual writer of the twentieth century. In When the Trees Say Nothing, editor Kathleen Deignan sheds new light on Merton by focusing on a neglected theme of his writing: the natural world as…
I adore this book. It
was Shepard's last work, editing it with Patti Smith, his friend, in the last
days of his life. It's written as fiction, but it is clearly about Shepard
himself and his final days, about the beauty of life and how to face death.
Beautiful prose tells the story of a man who traces his memories as he slowly
loses his senses and becomes more and more dependent on the love and help of
others.
At the core of this book is the value of family and with the natural world.
The final work from the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, actor, and musician, drawn from his transformative last days
In searing, beautiful prose, Sam Shepard’s extraordinary narrative leaps off the page with its immediacy and power. It tells in a brilliant braid of voices the story of an unnamed narrator who traces, before our rapt eyes, his memories of work, adventure, and travel as he undergoes medical tests and treatments for a condition that is rendering him more and more dependent on the loved ones who are caring for him. The narrator’s memories and preoccupations often echo those of our current moment—for…
Seamus Damp is an aging American-born writer
who retreats to a remote island off the coast of Ireland to escape to a
monastic life.
But his troubled past is always near, and his estranged
relationship with his son is fraught with heartbreak.
When a young woman who
carries her own heartache-filled past comes to the island on a solitary spiritual
and hiking adventure, she and Seamus discover an unusual bond and together
attempt to find a way to heal their hearts and erase their collective sorrows
on a beautiful yet rugged, wind-swept island where solitude is its greatest
gift.
