Read this when
Wild
She lost her boot off a cliff, threw the other one after it, and kept walking. Sometimes grief looks like that. 🥾
Who it's for
At twenty-two Strayed loses her mother, Bobbi, to lung cancer at forty-five; her family scatters, and she spirals into affairs, heroin and the end of her marriage to Paul.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Cheryl Strayed's 2012 memoir recounts how, at 22, she lost her mother to lung cancer and spent the following years in grief-driven self-destructive behaviour, including heroin use. At 26 she set out alone on the Pacific Crest Trail, hiking about 1,100 miles from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to the Bridge of the Gods on the Washington border.
Where to find it
In print and widely available; libraries (Libby/Hoopla); audiobook read by the author. 2014 film adaptation.
Before you start
Heads up: Heroin use and a parent's death.
Age: Ages 16+
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?Wilfred Owen, Poems, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”
