Journalist Claire Dunn once spent a year living off the grid in the Australian bush, a transformative experience she chronicled in My Year Without Matches. After moving to Melbourne, Dunn found herself not only overwhelmed by the urban bustle, but craving ways truly to connect to the wildness that was sometimes hidden under the city's concrete heart. In her second book, Rewilding the Urban Soul, Dunn charts her experiments in foraging, observing and learning about local wildlife species, kayaking a city river and even making herself a (locally trapped) fox fur coat.
Much as Dunn was shaped by her time in the bush, she knew she couldn't stay there. But she didn't want a typically fast-paced urban life, either. In warm, insightful prose, Dunn relates her experiences building a new life from scratch: settling into a communal house, leading "Rewild Friday" groups at a local park, teaching others to see the physical world in the city while re-seeing it herself. She delves into the disconnect that sometimes exists between urban dwellers and their surroundings, and tries different ways of bridging the gap. Though the details of Dunn's landscape are vividly Australian, her strategies are available to many urban dwellers: anyone can learn the names of local birds, trees and other species, or make an effort to find out where their food and water come from. Dunn's humility, thoughtfulness and curiosity make her an excellent guide to finding and following a thread of wildness in any city. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams