This is a deeply moving, honest and sometimes upsetting account of a father’s sudden loss of his beloved daughter; in the days and weeks that follow the clinging on to memory, the glimpses of Iris, the bewilderment of grief. But ‘God is an Octopus’ is much more than a memoir of loss. Ben’s grief drives him forwards, on a journey to find Iris’s spirit in other places, and to learn how he might use a shared attachment to the natural world – their common ground – to re-build his sense of purpose and hope. ‘Octopus’ is a celebration of the human spirit, in all its mysteries, and humanity’s interdependence with the extraordinary flora and fauna that we share a planet with and yet still treat with indifference. It is a beautiful and brave and poignant book, written by a man who, plunged into darkness, has climbed his way back out into the light. Bravo. Read it.