Synopses & Reviews
A
New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
Shortlisted for the 2018 J. Anthony Lukas Prize
An
Outside Magazine Best Book of 2017
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Science Friday Best Science Book of 2017
The enthralling story of the rise and reign of O-Six, the celebrated Yellowstone wolf, and the people who loved or feared her.
Before men ruled the earth, there were wolves. Once abundant in North America, these majestic creatures were hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states by the 1920s. But in recent decades, conservationists have brought wolves back to the Rockies, igniting a battle over the very soul of the West.
With novelistic detail, Nate Blakeslee tells the gripping story of one of these wolves, O-Six, a charismatic alpha female named for the year of her birth. Uncommonly powerful, with gray fur and faint black ovals around each eye, O-Six is a kind and merciful leader, a fiercely intelligent fighter, and a doting mother. She is beloved by wolf watchers, particularly renowned naturalist Rick McIntyre, and becomes something of a social media star, with followers around the world.
But as she raises her pups and protects her pack, O-Six is challenged on all fronts: by hunters, who compete with wolves for the elk they both prize; by cattle ranchers who are losing livestock and have the ear of politicians; and by other Yellowstone wolves who are vying for control of the park's stunningly beautiful Lamar Valley.
These forces collide in American Wolf, a riveting multigenerational saga of hardship and triumph that tells a larger story about the ongoing cultural clash in the West — between those fighting for a vanishing way of life and those committed to restoring one of the country's most iconic landscapes.
Review
“Gripping and fascinating! Wolf versus wolf, wolf versus man, man versus man.” Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale and Hag-Seed (via Twitter)
Review
“[American Wolf] is a startlingly intimate portrait of the intricate, loving, human-like interrelationships that govern wolves in the wild, as observed in real time by a cadre of dedicated wolf-watchers — in the end, a drama of lupine love, care, and grief.” Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake
Review
“Wild, poignant, and compelling, American Wolf is an important, beautifully wrought book about animals, about values, and about living on this earth.” Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief and Rin Tin Tin
Review
“American Wolf takes its place in a long lineage of wolf books…. [T]here are cherished, striking images here…testament to the ever-flowing life force that is the wolf.” Rick Bass, New York Times Book Review
Review
“Blakeslee draws O-Six in novelistic…detail, using the conflicting insight and perspective of biologists, politicians, ranchers, environmentalists, lawyers, other animals, and hunters…. Seeing a wolf is exceptionally rare, and this book is as close as most readers will come.” The New Yorker
Review
“Ambitious…a significant and engaging work. It’s easy to write about the importance of local social life. It’s harder to know what to do to support it…. Klinenberg’s argument has a powerful simplicity. Look after the social infrastructure and social bonds will largely look after themselves.” Financial Times
Review
“The story of one wolf’s struggle to survive in the majestic Yellowstone National Park offers an ambitious look through the eyes of an endangered animal.” New York Times Book Review
Review
“A matriarch overthrown in what seems fairly described as a ’putsch,’ marauding gangs running attacks into neighboring territory, an hours-long standoff with a grizzly, a discarded water bottle — a rarity in the wilderness of a national park — tossed around and protected like a prized new toy. The lives of the wolves in Yellowstone are often dramatic, but are full of touching, tender moments too, as Nate Blakeslee vividly writes in American Wolf.” Los Angeles Times
About the Author
Nate Blakeslee is a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly. His first book, Tulia, was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award and won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the Texas Institute of Letters nonfiction award, and was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2005. The Washington Post called it one of the most important books about wrongful convictions ever written. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his family.