What is it to be wild? Cheryl Strayed and Meghan Daum

Does being ‘wild’ mean being uninhibited, unprotected, uncharted – or simply being free? What wildernesses do we face in our lives, cities, relationships, minds, and how should we meet them? What drives us to pursue inappropriate people, crave incomplete fulfilments, destroy what we love, or even be good?

Wild is, of course, also the name of Cheryl Strayed’s powerful best-selling memoir. It follows its author, then 26, through the death of her mother, a heroin addiction, and the dissolution of her marriage. The 1800km coastal trek she then embarked upon is near-mythic; Reese Witherspoon brought Strayed’s story to Hollywood (and played the lead), and the book led her to discover her half-sister (who recognised her father in Strayed’s writing).

Beyond Wild, Cheryl Strayed’s work (Tiny Beautiful Things, the forthcoming Brave Enough, and her Dear Sugar podcast/column for The Rumpus) deftly handles difficult and familiar subjects.

Her insightful approach to struggle, relationships, etiquette and American myths and aspirations is well-matched to those of her interlocutor: author and essayist Meghan Daum. (In the New York Times Book Review, Strayed described Daum’s book The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion as ‘thrillingly good’ and the best she’d read in 2014.)

Expect unflinching truths.

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