The Snag

A Mother, a Forest, and Wild Grief

Tessa McWatt

$45

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Scribe Publications
29 July 2025

Psychology; Coping with death & bereavement; Family & relationships; Complementary therapies, healing & health; Trees, wildflowers & plants

Every day, we hear about and experience griefs, large and small, in our families, friendships, communities, and worldwide. The grief of a loved one passing. The grief of a way of life ceasing to exist. The grief of global pandemic, war, climate collapse.

In The Snag, the acclaimed author of Shame on Me, Tessa McWatt, takes on personal and collective grief, and climate change, in her much-anticipated second nonfiction book.

As her mother's dementia advances and it becomes apparent that she can no longer live independently, Tessa considers griefs personal and political, and finds solace in trees. She asks- How do we grieve? And- What can we learn from nature and those whose communities are rooted in nature about how to grieve - and how to live?

From the newest seedling, to the oldest snag in the forest, there is meaning to be found in every stage of a tree's life, all of which contribute to a thriving forest community; it is in this metaphor that Tessa begins to find answers to her questions about how to live (for each other), how to grieve (radically), and how to die (with love and connection).

The Snag is an essential book about living and dancing and singing and praying, even in the face of unimaginable sadness, and in this way, growing together and supporting one another, like the trees in the forest.

'In The Snag, Tessa McWatt dwells in powerful contradictions as she brings us along through her complex journeys of grief and joy across continents, offering multilayered and much-needed insight into connection and belonging beyond ourselves. Making the global intimate and the familial expansive, this book is a poignant lament for what we are losing and a call to care for what we have not yet lost.' -Kate Neville, author of Going to Seed

'An extraordinary book - both a love song to the planet and reminder of how precious it is to be alive. Wise, bold, and deeply affecting, The Snag is an urgent plea for change.' -Stephanie Bishop, author of The Anniversary

'The Snag is a radical ecosystem of a book. Love and loss, death and renewal, seeds and snags; the intimately personal and the globally political are all delicately balanced here. Tessa McWatt holds us unflinchingly close in this singular and universal story of a mother's decline, and demands that we face up to the grief of all that we stand to lose in our collective planetary home's demise.' -Marchelle Farrell, author of Uprooting

By: Tessa McWatt
Imprint: Scribe Publications
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 135mm, Spine: 27mm
ISBN: 9781915590985
ISBN 10: 1915590981
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 29 July 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Tessa McWatt is the author of seven novels, two books for young people, and one nonfiction book. Her work has been nominated for the Governor General's Award and the Toronto Book Awards, and won the OCM Bocas Prize. She is a winner of the Eccles British Library Award 2018. McWatt is Professor of Creative Writing at UEA.

Reviews for The Snag: A Mother, a Forest, and Wild Grief

‘In The Snag, Tessa McWatt dwells in powerful contradictions as she brings us along through her complex journeys of grief and joy across continents, offering multilayered and much-needed insight into connection and belonging beyond ourselves. Making the global intimate and the familial expansive, this book is a poignant lament for what we are losing and a call to care for what we have not yet lost.’ -- Kate Neville, author of Going to Seed ‘An extraordinary book — both a love song to the planet and reminder of how precious it is to be alive. Wise, bold, and deeply affecting, The Snag is an urgent plea for change.’ -- Stephanie Bishop, author of The Anniversary Praise for Shame on Me: ‘She is one of our greatest black female writers … She’s a deeply thoughtful woman and deeply radical in her thinking. She’s not on the fence about her politics.’ -- Monique Roffey * The Observer * Praise for Shame on Me: ‘Political, personal, intellectual, and critical.’ -- Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, Other Praise for Shame on Me: ‘Eloquent and moving.’ -- Barbara Taylor * The Guardian * Praise for Higher Ed: ‘Tessa McWatt brings the traditional campus novel bang up to date … This polyphonic novel owes an obvious debt to Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, but nevertheless [McWatt] manages to make this exuberant but bittersweet tale something all of her own.’ -- Lucy Scholes * The Observer *