Deni Béchard at Ottawa Writers Festival

Join us in welcoming two remarkable writers whose journeys into the natural world inspire us to explore what wilderness means to us.

When acclaimed author Deni Béchard learned of the last living bonobos—matriarchal great apes which are, alongside chimpanzees, our closest relatives—he was astonished. How could we accept the disappearance of this majestic species, along with the rainforest it calls home? Part polemic, part travelogue, part natural history, The Last Bonobo: A Journey into the Congo offers a moving story of how a few committed people can affect great and lasting change, while pointing out a path that may allow us to emulate them.