The Grass Library

Description

A philosophical and poetic journey recounting the author's relationship with his four sheep and other animals in his home in the Blue Mountains. Both memoir and eloquent testament to animal rights. 'One of the most beautifully written books about animals I have ever read. I know of nothing else like it published in this or any other country. Deep, sensitive, charming, instructive and above all, humble. I cannot imagine anyone reading it without coming away in some profound sense altered.' - Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of When Elephants Weep '...a gorgeous book. Anyone who loves animals will be enchanted...but it's a book that will challenge your thinking as well...highly recommended.' - ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 'The Grass Library traces the author's tree-change, from inner-Sydney Professor of Australian Literature to his current existence in the upper Blue Mountains: born-again vegan; carer of rescue animals. Paralleling this geographical transition is an ideological one: an attempt to untether himself from conventional ways of thinking about and relating to non-human animals...[The Grass Library] captures the deft meanderings, sideways movements and unexpected leaps of [Brooks'] mind.' - Plumwood Mountain

David Brooks is a poet, novelist, short fiction writer and essayist. He has taught literature at various Australian universities and is Honorary Associate Professor of Australian Literature at the University of Sydney. A vegan and animal rights advocate, he lives in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, and spends a portion of each year in a village on the coast of Slovenia. He has been called one of the quiet masters of Australian poetry, and one of Australias most skilled, unusual and versatile writers (Sydney Morning Herald). Pangea, a major Italian literary website, recently described him as the most eccentric writer in Oceania. His works have been widely shortlisted for major Australian literary awards. He was the 2015/16 Australia Council Fellow in Fiction, in recognition of his extensive contribution to Australian and International literature. His work has been widely translated and anthologised. He has been a guest-of-honour at international conferences and literary festivals.

The Grass Library is a gorgeous book. Anyone who loves animals will be enchanted ... but its a book that will challenge your thinking as well. -- ANZ LitLovers LitBlog, Lisa Hill, 21 June 2019. The book is breath-taking. A literary and morally compelling demonstration of what communion with non-human animals looks like, and in a manner that exposes the paucity and imaginative impoverishment of the usual animal rights rhetoric. -- Scott Stephens, Editor of the ABC Religion and Ethics Program and co-host of ABC RN Minefield This may not be a book for everyones taste but for those of us who love non-human animals, as the author calls them, and believe deeply in animal rights, then you will be entranced and deeply moved by this beautiful memoir. -- Good Reading Magazine If you want a book to give to a dear friend, dont look any further than The Grass Library by David Brooks, except that once you hold the book in your hands youll probably want to keep it. When I saw the cover and read the first page, I was hooked -- The Gleaner, November 2019 click here to read more. I ADORED THIS BOOK, a touching, searching, and also very funny report on the ad-hoc sanctuary that Brooks and his partnera scholar of nonhuman-animal grief, T.put together when called on to give refuge to a ram, Henry, and a wether, Jonathan. -- A. Marie Houser, Faunary Press, September 2019 On the surface, The Grass Library tells a simple story. In the Blue Mountains, he begins to establish a sanctuary for wayward animals, most notably their dog Charlie and four sheep: Henry, Charlie, Orpheus, and Pumpkin. But in true essayist style, Brooks tells the reader theyre in for more than whats on the narrative surface -- this book isnt about veganism, or guilt, he writes, but ultimately and more simply its about discovery and wonder: wonder, and wondering. -- Jack Stanton, Mascara Literary Review, September 2019