In 2017, Sophie Pierce's life changed forever when her twenty-year-old
son Felix died suddenly and unexpectedly. Thrown into an unimaginable
new reality, she had to find a way to survive. By writing letters to
Felix - composed during walks and swims taken close to his burial place
by the River Dart - Sophie gradually learned how to live in the
landscape of sudden loss, navigating the weather and tides of grief. The
Green Hill collects these letters alongside Sophie's account of the
years following Felix's death, into which she weaves poignant memories
of his life. What results is a deeply moving, beautifully captured
record of how - amid the rivers and rocks of Dartmoor, and in the sea
off the South Devon coast - Sophie was able to hold on to and nurture
her bond with Felix, both in her mind and through a physical engagement
with the landscape: actively mourning, rather than grieving. This book
is a celebration of the natural world and the role it plays in our lives
and relationships, as well as an examination of how beauty and the
passing seasons can help us contend with our own mortality. Above all,
The Green Hill is one woman's story of navigating through trauma and
loss, and towards a fragile, complicated kind of joy.
