Our first book review comes from Jill Dattel, a member of

Manassas Presbyterian Church (USA) outside of D.C.

Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing by Gayle Boss Illustrated by David G. Klein

Paraclete Press, 2020

http://gayleboss.com/wild-hope

“How many are your works, O Lord,! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” Psalm 104:24

Creation is groaning: the hungry, the sick, the homeless, the poisoned, the hunted, and the desecrated. These sound like predicaments we humans face. Instead, Gayle Boss’ Wild Hope is about our fellow non-human creatures: the Staghorn Coral, the Koala, the Monarch Butterfly, the Olm, and the Black Rhinoceros, to name a few. Twenty-five species in all are included in this book whose author explains that their path to extinction is spiraling out of control because of human choices. You could say, each one, like us, is suffering its own COVID-19 nightmare.

This is not a book for the faint-hearted. It is a lament of God’s creatures, gut-wrenching and sad. Yet each vignette, along with the beautiful pen and ink drawings, arouses a sense of wonder as well as loss. Wild Hope reminds me of our symbiosis with all life forms – if one suffers, we all suffer.

As the book title suggests, the author does offer hope, however. Scientists, researchers, and concerned citizens are working hard together to save each of the species highlighted in Boss’ book—resurrect them, so to speak, and bring them back from the brink of destruction. But she is sober to alert us they can’t do it alone.

The Lenten connection in Wild Hope is intriguing. The dark days leading up to Christ’s death and including his crucifixion are consequences of our choices. And yet, God grants us salvation and love in spite of ourselves. Holy Week is a place we do not want to enter, but we must. Like Lent, the stories in Boss’ book remind us our bad choices can bring devastation. The good news is in Jesus Christ we are born anew, so that we can work together in love and compassion to be stewards of all creation. Our cooperation through Christ brings me wild hope.

--Jill Dattel