We were over the moon to discover that the remarkable Two Lights by James Roberts has been longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2024. The annual prize recognises a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place.
Two Lights is an extraordinary account of searching for the wildness left in our world – spanning continents and geological eras, skies and oceans, animals and birds, and even the planets and stars.
With dizzying acuity and insight Roberts paints a portrait of a life and its landscapes, creating precious connections with wild creatures and places, from swans in the Cambrian Mountains to wolves in the Pacific Northwest.
By walking at dawn and dusk, in the two lights of awakening and deepening, through the stripped, windswept hills of Wales, and the jungles and savannahs of Africa, he tries to navigate from a soul-stripping sense of loss towards hope in the future.
In the presence of wild creatures, he finds a way back to life.
