We can’t wait for the governments of the world

Emily Grandy interviews Donna M Cameron

In our previous issue, Donna interviewed Emily about her novel. Here, Emily asks Donna about her novel The Rewilding.

Heartbroken and in fear for his life, corporate whistle blower, Jagger Eckerman, escapes to hide out in a remote cave, but kick-arse radical, Nia Moretti, is furious a ‘capitalist suit’ has taken over her cave. It is hatred at first sight.

Yet Nia is hiding for reasons of her own, ones that drag Jagger closer to death as they are forced on the run together and he is unwittingly pulled deeper into Nia’s reckless mission to help save the planet. But who can save Jagger from the relentless pursuit of the man who wants him dead?

Emily: Donna, first off, I just want to thank you for bringing so much heart to this novel. For me, this book represents so much more than simply bringing awareness of our most urgent social and climate issues. It’s also about rebirth, finding a new way of living. What, for you, is the main message you wanted to share in The Rewilding?

Donna: Thank you, Emily. I’m not sure that it was a message that motivated me to start writing this book. It came more out of a place of extreme climate anxiety and grief and rage. I desperately needed to know if there was hope, so I suppose you could say I wrote my way towards hope. When I look back at the book now, I think the two protagonists represent different sides of myself. I am by nature an optimistic person and suddenly I was battling with the growing ‘doomer’ in me. For those readers who may not be familiar with The Rewilding – the story begins when a corporate whistle blower, Jagger Eckerman, flees to hide out in an isolated cave, but he soon discovers the cave is already occupied by a radicalised eco-warrior, Nia Moretti, who is hiding because she’s up to her own illegal activities in her fight to save the planet. These two take one look at each other and it is hatred at first sight, so of course they end up trapped together and on the road, running for their lives.

Emily: In the opening, we see Jagger fleeing, somewhat haphazardly, after blowing the whistle on his father’s company’s illegal dumping activities. He’s still wearing his Armani suit pants while escaping the city on his friend’s bicycle! What struck me was the spontaneity of this decision, blowing the whistle before considering the fallout or planning his escape, and how all of this is tied up in Jagger fleeing his failed relationship with Lola. How much of his decision to whistleblow was prompted by goodwill vs retribution, and would he have called out these illegal activities if his personal life hadn’t been in shambles? As readers, we’re asked to consider: is the goodness of an action diminished by the motives? What’s your take on this question?

I think the goodness of an action can be diminished by its motive. Jagger at the beginning of the book is not capable of thinking beyond himself, so his action is not altruistic. His life implodes within 24 hours, and underlying all of this is his repressed grief over the death of his mother, so he’s not thinking straight when he sends that email. He regrets it immediately and spirals into a state of panic. It was a great way to kick off the start of his journey and set the pacing for the book – I wanted to capture the unrelenting sense of urgency we are all feeling, (even for some people if it’s only on a subconscious level), around the rapid change occurring to our planet due to temperature rise.

Jagger flees his complex life in the city, hoping to find sanctuary in a nature reserve. You write, “On reaching the cave, he sits in the cool shade and surveys the Pacific Ocean, wry at the irony: a million-dollar view that won’t cost him a cent.” The novel continuously draws readers’ attention to this dichotomy in values, what money can buy vs what nature gives freely. How did this concept shape the work overall?

So many books that I read dealing with climate change are set in some dire near future. I wanted to write a book that was set now in this exciting cusp of change, in these end days of capitalism. This is reflected in several ways in the book, even metaphorically in Jagger’s business suit which becomes increasingly tattered as the story unfolds, and in his journey as a character. Being out of the city and back in nature, he begins to experience a rewilding as he reconnects with the little nature, loving child he once was. His final epiphany occurs when he realises humans are intrinsically linked to every part of this planet, that we are just another species making up part of the whole, and that our monetary system driven by excess consumption is a human construct that is damaging that whole.

In The Rewilding, you mention the rapid clearing of air and rivers during COVID lockdowns, and the self-repair of the ozone layer following worldwide bans on CFC’s. I was also happily surprised that that you highlighted the bald eagle intervention that brought the species back from the brink in Ohio, where I grew up. These are examples not only of how ably humans can coordinate on a local or even international scale, but also how quickly the Earth works to heal itself in response to caregiving. For those of us who care deeply about our Earth and our non-human kin, success stories like these are a salve to raw wounds. What keeps you hopeful in the face of so many climate and environmental justice issues?

It was through the research and then the writing of The Rewilding that I found hope. There are many humans on this planet fighting for a more sustainable world. These good news stories are continually overshadowed by all the bad news. The recent pandemic ironically gave me incredible hope – how quickly we came together, and then how quickly the planet started to cool once we changed our behaviour. It only took days. Within weeks, not months, the temperature started to drop. I believe in humans – even though we are the most destructive species on the planet, we are also one of the most creative, compassionate and remarkable species on this planet. I need to believe that we will come together in the face of this crisis (probably at the 23^rd hour). In Australia, for instance, there is movement happening from the ground up within communities working together to create resilience and draw down emissions. People power is on the rise and governments are getting nervous, protestors are becoming more radicalized. You can’t stop a revolution.

The Rewilding forces readers to contend with the urgency of climate change and species extinction by reflecting on our own life choices. The two main characters, Jag and Nia, represent opposite ends of the spectrum: she is an ecoterrorist, fighting for the survival of the planet, while Jag -- at least at the outset of the book -- is accustomed to a highly consumptive lifestyle. But most of us probably fall somewhere along that spectrum. For the average person, what do you see as the “best” way forward? How should we choose to live on this quickly changing planet?

For us people living in rich countries, we should choose to live mindfully and sustainably. There are so many things we can do on a personal level to empower ourselves. (Here, I have listed ten things we can all do). Simple things like divesting. By divesting I mean, if your bank, superannuation, power, or insurance company invests in fossil fuels leave them for a ‘green’ company. (And don’t forget to tell them why you are doing so). Imagine if every one of us in the rich countries of the world divested overnight – what a difference that would make, what a signal that would send. It was through the writing of The Rewilding that I discovered all of this is very possible, that hope comes through action. The scientists aren’t saying it is too late. They are saying if we act now, we can turn things around. It is time to act. And it is up to us. We can’t wait for the governments of the world – they are moving too slowly and in the meantime the temperature is rising. I tried to capture all of this and present solutions in The Rewilding through a funny odd-ball, opposites attract love story and page-turning chase thriller.

Find out more about The Rewilding.

Emily Grandy’s debut novel, Michikusa House (Homebound Publications, 2023), was awarded the Landmark Prize, the Nautilus Book Award, and was longlisted for the Edna Ferber Book Award. Her second novel, Cupido Cupido (forthcoming), was a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for socially engaged fiction. Her writing has appeared in both scientific and literary journals and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Before she became a biomedical editor for GDIT, she did orthopedic research at the Cleveland Clinic. 

Donna M Cameron is a playwright and AWGIE nominated radio dramatist who now writes novels. Her debut, Beneath the Mother Tree was declared a 2018 top Australian fiction read by The Advertiser, longlisted for the Davitt Awards and selected for the 2019 QWC/Screen QLD’s Adaptable program. The manuscript of her second book The Rewilding, which has just been published in ANZ, won her a KSP Fellowship, was runner up in a Writing NSW award and gained her a 2021 Varuna Fellowship. Donna was recently accorded a Regional Arts Development Fund grant to work on her third novel, Bloomfield.