God Is An Octopus: Loss, Love and a Calling to Nature

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First comes the “rewiggling” of a human-made drainage ditch, encouraging the curves that make for a healthy, meandering stream. Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages.

He takes the hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca (the title of the book is one of the insights from that experience). If you live in bear country, you know how hard it is to really assess the danger of having them in the neighbourhood. I have learnt so much about the ‘nature-of-all-things’ and the spiritual hope that is open to all of us, and I have been utterly moved forever after reading Ben’s beautiful and eloquently written story, both deeply sad and uplifting, it is admirable that such a book now exists. Goldsmith has written an extraordinary book, God is an Octopus , about his journey through grief and his exploration of the afterlife.He speaks with members of various faiths and believers of mystical ideas, but ultimately it is nature, and the rewilding of the family farm, that brings him hope. Goldsmith describes how his daughter, his firstborn, loved lists, loved nature, loved catching and releasing pigeons to amuse her siblings.

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Audrey Ward * The Sunday Times * Ben chronicles the unfathomable tragedy of his daughter’s death with the profound love and compassion of a bereft parent. Intensely readable, poetic, truthful, wise and wonderful, this will live with me for a very long time. Goldsmith and his family seemed to live in a crucible, rapidly learning what was revealed to the rest of the world more slowly: that in the midst of crisis, nature can renew if we let it and that such renewal is a soothing balm for our own trauma.

To be clear, this is not a detailed account of that ecological undertaking, but rather a raw portrait of a man drowning in grief. The start of this book is an upsetting and difficult read, making you cling to your children a little tighter when you hug them good night or wave them off to school. The Guardian, Saturday magazine * In this very moving memoir, the leading rewilder and green investor bares his soul to let us into the darkest moments of his most private grief … His themes of loss, love and recovery are universal, the story beautifully told.

When it fills with rain for the first time, he’s greeted by “an unfamiliar sense of joy that coyly hovered, tentatively awaiting permission to wash over me”. Goldsmith’s commitment to restoring nature grows as he explores different faiths and responses to loss.