The Snag

The Snag: A Mother, A Forest, and Wild Grief, by Tessa McWatt (Penguin Random House Canada/Scribe Publications) is an ecological memoir by the 2020 winner of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature (Nonfiction). The work combines McWatt’s chronicle of her mother’s dementia prognosis with the degradation of the natural ecosystems sustaining human life. As the memoirist immerses herself in a forest, she uncovers ever deeper questions about mourning, remembrance, and environmentally-focused resilience in devastating times. Described as a “radical ecosystem of a book’”by Marchelle Farrell, The Snag points towards restorative pathways for struggling individuals and solidarity-based communities alike.