Wild

Discusses the author's journey, telling how he went to the freedom fighters of West Papua and sang his head off in their highlands; met cannibals infinitely kinder and more trustworthy than the murderous missionaries who evangelize them; and, how he anchored a boat to an iceberg where polar bears slept, ate witchetty grubs and visited sea gypsies. WINNER OF THE ORION BOOK AWARD Part travelogue, part manifesto for wildness as an essential character of life, Wild is a one-of-a-kind book from a one-of-a-kind author''Undefinable, untameable, profound and extraordinary'' Observer''A masterpiece'' Maria Popova_________________________''I took seven years over this work, spent all I had, my time, money and energy. Part of the journey was a green riot and part a deathly bleakness. I got ill, I got well. I went to the freedom fighters of West Papua and sang my head off in their highlands. I met cannibals infinitely kinder and more trustworthy than the murderous missionaries who evangelize them. I found a paradox of wildness in the glinting softness of its charisma, for what is savage is in the deepest sense gentle and what is wild is kind. In the end - a strangely sweet result - I came back to a wild home. ''Wild describes an extraordinary odyssey, courageous and sometimes dangerous. It is by turns funny, touching and harrowing, and offers a poetic consideration of the tender connection between human society and wildlands. _________________________''Easily the best travel book that I have read in the last ten years'' Guardian''Wild is like nothing else I''ve ever read: thrilling, troubling, frightening, exhilarating. This is a truly necessary book, and we are all lucky that the subject found a writer worthy of it'' Philip Pullman''Passionate, rigorous and utterly honest, Griffiths''s remarkable book is written in a style as wild and exciting as its subject'' Robert Macfarlane