Synopses & Reviews
No more than a few thousand tigers survive in pockets of Asia, a continent they once roamed far and wide. The largest of them, the Siberian tiger, is today almost entirely confined to the little-populated Russian Far East, a region that may offer the species' best hope for survival. But the implosion of the Soviet Union intensified poaching and habitat depredation, prompting a group of Russian researchers and U.S. wildlife biologists led by Maurice Hornocker to join forces to stave off extinction.
Peter Matthiessen brings to the Siberian tiger the deep knowledge of and feeling for the natural world that have made classics of his previous books. Accompanying researchers into the field, he allows the reader to participate vicariously in the battle for the tiger's future. Along the way, he tells how the species evolved and evokes its crucial, often totemic role in human cultures and mythologies. He has made of the tiger's dilemma a drama-underscored by Hornocker's one-of-a-kind photographs-that conveys powerfully what a loss to our collective imagination the disappearance of these great cats would be.
Review
"To the graceful prose and attentive descriptions that mark his bestselling nonfiction...and his fiction...Matthiessen's new work adds a sense of urgency: the result is a marvelously effective brief in favor of tigers....Hornocker...contributes the volume's 60 spectacular black and white photographs....Invigorated by Matthiessen's potent prose, these photos celebrate the majesty, and highlight the plight, of one of nature's most magnificent beasts." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Matthiessen...is our greatest modern nature writer in the lyrical tradition." New York Times Book Review
Review
"Matthiessen describes the difficulties the expeditions encountered in gathering data on a very elusive species in a harsh environment, with powerful foreign cultural forces at work. His very readable, engaging text is accompanied by more than 60 equally impressive photographs by Hornocker. Essential reading for everyone interested in wildlife and the preservation of endangered species." Library Journal
Review
"A gorgeously, sadly elegiac defense of the Siberian tiger, as well as his vanishing relatives in India, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and China (or, in the case of Iran, vanished)....What Matthiessen knows and makes us feel, is that the fate of the tiger may be a kind of final judgment on whether human beings can actually call themselves civilized." Newsday
Review
"A slim, powerful account of the world's 3,000 or so remaining wild tigers...Matthiessen, a deft and graceful writer, puts this tale about saving the world's largest tigers in the larger context of the whole species' evolution and place in our world." San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
Synopsis
The author of The Snow Leopard and Bone by Bone takes readers into the world of the Siberian tiger to convey powerfully what a loss to our collective imagination the disappearance of these great cats would be. Full color.
About the Author
Peter Mathiessen is the author of
The Snow Leopard and numerous other works of nonfiction and fiction, most recently
Bone by Bone. Maurice Hornocker is a co-founder of the Siberian Tiger Project, a senior conservationist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, and director of the Hornocker Wildlife Institute