Perhaps motherhood is always a promise that cannot be kept.

Rain or shine, Nellika Werner goes for long walks every day in the bush near her home. The cool silence of the forest helps soothe what is repeatedly torn apart by family life.

One morning, she decides to take a path she’s never walked before. Deep in this remote part of the forest, Nellika is struck by a falling manna gum branch, which pins her to the ground. Shockingly injured and unable to move, with no water or phone, her only hope is that someone will find her.

*

When her children are born, Nellika vows she will be the perfect mother. Motherhood is something sacred, mythic: it will remake everything that is broken in her. But as her children grow, the myth begins to crack, and she realises some breaks can never be healed.

*

As the window of hope for rescue gradually closes, and darkness falls on what might be her last day, Nellika makes a reckoning of herself and the place where she lies. Is this fallen branch an accident or a punishment? As death draws close, the forest asks her: why should you live? And in the dark heart of her memories, she discovers that there is an answer.

Both a meditation on nature and healing, and a map of how one generation’s struggle imprints on the next, How to Love the World is brilliant, immersive and ultimately hopeful.