Awards

• Winner of Audies (Non-Fiction) 2018

Overview

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The enthralling true 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.

Full Product Details

9780525493297

Table of Contents

Reviews

[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 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 A transcendent tale of the American West. --S. C. Gwynne, author of Empire of the Summer Moon and Rebel Yell 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) Engaging... a must read for researchers, citizen scientists, and visitors to Yellowstone, where the story of the wolves continues to evolve. --Science Beautiful, detailed... [American Wolf] centers on the rise, reign, and family life of O-Six, matriarch of the Lamar Canyon pack and so well-known to park visitors that the New York Times gave her an obituary. --Publisher's Weekly (starred) The fight... [over] Yellowstone's wolves is embodied in O-Six's story, told with great immediacy and empathy in a tale that reads like fiction. This one will grab readers and impel them into the heart of the conflict. --Booklist (starred) Utterly compelling.... Blakelsee's masterly use of fiction writing techniques to ratchet up the tension will hook a wide swath of readers. --Library Journal (starred) [A] rich, poignant story of wolf recovery in Yellowstone and its impacts on the surrounding countryside and communities. --National Parks Traveler Nate Blakeslee has achieved the Jack London-like feat of creating a great story whose main character is an animal. --Nicholas Lemann, author of The Big Test and Redemption There are so few wolves in the West that each one can cast a kind of enchantment. This fine book takes one animal, and uses it as a way to understand the vectors that whipsaw the last wild places. It will linger in your mind and heart. --Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and Radio Free Vermont American Wolf is an intimate and riveting book about America's most iconic and embattled predator.... A wonderful and welcome addition to the pantheon of nature literature. --John Vaillant, author of The Tiger and The Golden Spruce A well-rendered story... evenhanded but clearly and rightly on the side of the wolves. --Kirkus Reviews Gorgeously written, and offering stunning insights into both animal and human nature, American Wolf is a masterly feat of science journalism. --Michael Finkel, author of The Stranger in the Woods As in a great novel, we are swept along in a multi-generational saga involving matters of character, courtship, and shifting social relations. --Tom Kizzia, author of Pilgrim's Wilderness Heartbreaking front-line coverage of our war on the wild.... Blakeslee hauntingly gives the victims faces, families, and stories. A quietly angry, aching, important book. --Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast A compelling environmental drama of the reintroduction of wolves to the Rockies, as clear-sighted on human politics as it is on wolf politics. --Neil Ansell, author of Deep Country The Game of Thrones story of modern western wolves, [unfolding] in just as riveting a fashion. It is an absolutely mesmerizing read. --Dan Flores, author of Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History American Wolf gives us true profiles of wolf lives lived in their actual families. And when humans get involved, the trajectory of their lives forever changes. --Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel Written with heart, but not sentimentality, American Wolf is nothing less than Shakespearean tragedy played out against the backdrop of our troubled relationship with nature. --J.B. MacKinnon, author of The Once and Future World With American Wolf, Nate Blakeslee gives us a very different sort of biography--the saga of a single female wolf, 'the most famous wolf in the world, ' and her exploits in Yellowstone National Park. It's 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 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 American Wolf is a transcendent tale of the American West. I loved the doggedness and depth of the reporting, the texture of the writing. There are echoes of Jack London everywhere. But above all I loved the wolf herself, a character like no other I have ever encountered. --S. C. Gwynne, author of Empire of the Summer Moon and Rebel Yell 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) In American Wolf, Nate Blakeslee has achieved the Jack London-like feat of creating a great story whose main character is an animal--which is especially impressive because this is a meticulously reported work of nonfiction. Blakeslee creates a memorable picture of a remote and beautiful part of the United States, where the natural world is magnificent but hardly peaceful, politics is ever-present, and the question at hand is which species is the more dangerous predator, wolves or humans. --Nicholas Lemann, author of The Big Test and Redemption There are so few wolves in the West that each one can cast a kind of enchantment. This fine book takes one animal, and uses it as a way to understand the vectors that whipsaw the last wild places. It will linger in your mind and heart. --Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and Radio Free Vermont American Wolf is an intimate and riveting book about America's most iconic and embattled predator. Blakeslee moves effortlessly between the ancient drama of the wolf pack, and its modern human counterpart, the sometimes-vicious, red state-blue state partisans whose battleground is the fate of the American wolf. A wonderful and welcome addition to the pantheon of nature literature. --John Vaillant, author of The Tiger and The Golden Spruce A well-rendered story. . . evenhanded but clearly and rightly on the side of the wolves. --Kirkus Reviews In Nate Blakeslee's riveting, endlessly adventurous narrative, the world of Yellowstone alpha wolf O-Six comes vividly alive and yet remains brutally wild. Gorgeously written, and offering stunning insights into both animal and human nature, American Wolf is a masterly feat of science journalism. --Michael Finkel, author of The Stranger in the Woods As in a great novel, we are swept along in a multi-generational saga involving matters of character, courtship, and shifting social relations. Except this is a story of wolves and wolf packs, as closely observed through the years by scientists, not nature poets. And in the background, the human fates and furies who control the animals' destiny: hunters and ecologists and fanatics struggling to adapt an ancient mythology of wolf-terror to the modern American West. --Tom Kizzia, author of Pilgrim's Wilderness Heartbreaking front-line coverage of our war on the wild.... Blakeslee hauntingly gives the victims faces, families and stories. A quietly angry, aching, important book. --Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast A compelling environmental drama of the reintroduction of wolves to the Rockies, as clear-sighted on human politics as it is on wolf politics. As wolf packs battle one another for control of precious territory, unknown to them another battle is taking place, between the wolves' supporters and those who would eradicate them. --Neil Ansell, author of Deep Country Nate Blakeslee's account of the Lamar Valley wolves, based largely on the two decades of meticulous notes kept by Yellowstone wolf watchers, is the Game of Thrones story of modern western wolves, and unfolds in just as riveting a fashion. It is an absolutely mesmerizing read. --Dan Flores, author of Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History Wolves are neither gods nor demons. Real wolves are complex beings with personalities, ambitions, careers, and--thanks to us--more than their fair share of tragedy. American Wolf gives us true profiles of wolf lives lived in their actual families. And when humans get involved, the trajectory of their lives forever changes. --Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel In an extraordinary feat of reportage, Nate Blakeslee brings us the wild's most storied animal as we've never seen it before. Here is the joyful wolf, the heroic wolf, the desperate wolf, the despairing wolf--the wolf as an individual as fully realized as its human allies and enemies. Written with heart, but not sentimentality, American Wolf is nothing less than Shakespearean tragedy played out against the backdrop of our troubled relationship with nature. --J.B. MacKinnon, author of The Once and Future World 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 American Wolf is a transcendent tale of the American West. I loved the doggedness and depth of the reporting, the texture of the writing. There are echoes of Jack London everywhere. But above all I loved the wolf herself, a character like no other I have ever encountered. --S. C. Gwynne, author of Empire of the Summer Moon and Rebel Yell 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) In American Wolf, Nate Blakeslee has achieved the Jack London-like feat of creating a great story whose main character is an animal--which is especially impressive because this is a meticulously reported work of nonfiction. Blakeslee creates a memorable picture of a remote and beautiful part of the United States, where the natural world is magnificent but hardly peaceful, politics is ever-present, and the question at hand is which species is the more dangerous predator, wolves or humans. --Nicholas Lemann, author of The Big Test and Redemption There are so few wolves in the West that each one can cast a kind of enchantment. This fine book takes one animal, and uses it as a way to understand the vectors that whipsaw the last wild places. It will linger in your mind and heart. --Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and Radio Free Vermont American Wolf is an intimate and riveting book about America's most iconic and embattled predator. Blakeslee moves effortlessly between the ancient drama of the wolf pack, and its modern human counterpart, the sometimes-vicious, red state-blue state partisans whose battleground is the fate of the American wolf. A wonderful and welcome addition to the pantheon of nature literature. --John Vaillant, author of The Tiger and The Golden Spruce In Nate Blakeslee's riveting, endlessly adventurous narrative, the world of Yellowstone alpha wolf O-Six comes vividly alive and yet remains brutally wild. Gorgeously written, and offering stunning insights into both animal and human nature, American Wolf is a masterly feat of science journalism. --Michael Finkel, author of The Stranger in the Woods As in a great novel, we are swept along in a multi-generational saga involving matters of character, courtship, and shifting social relations. Except this is a story of wolves and wolf packs, as closely observed through the years by scientists, not nature poets. And in the background, the human fates and furies who control the animals' destiny: hunters and ecologists and fanatics struggling to adapt an ancient mythology of wolf-terror to the modern American West. --Tom Kizzia, author of Pilgrim's Wilderness Heartbreaking front-line coverage of our war on the wild.... Blakeslee hauntingly gives the victims faces, families and stories. A quietly angry, aching, important book. --Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast A compelling environmental drama of the reintroduction of wolves to the Rockies, as clear-sighted on human politics as it is on wolf politics. As wolf packs battle one another for control of precious territory, unknown to them another battle is taking place, between the wolves' supporters and those who would eradicate them. --Neil Ansell, author of Deep Country Nate Blakeslee's account of the Lamar Valley wolves, based largely on the two decades of meticulous notes kept by Yellowstone wolf watchers, is the Game of Thrones story of modern western wolves, and unfolds in just as riveting a fashion. It is an absolutely mesmerizing read. --Dan Flores, author of Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History Wolves are neither gods nor demons. Real wolves are complex beings with personalities, ambitions, careers, and--thanks to us--more than their fair share of tragedy. American Wolf gives us true profiles of wolf lives lived in their actual families. And when humans get involved, the trajectory of their lives forever changes. --Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel

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 American Wolf is a transcendent tale of the American West. I loved the doggedness and depth of the reporting, the texture of the writing. There are echoes of Jack London everywhere. But above all I loved the wolf herself, a character like no other I have ever encountered. --S. C. Gwynne, author of Empire of the Summer Moon and Rebel Yell Gripping and fascinating! Wolf versus wolf, wolf versus man, man versus man. --Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale and Hag-Seed There are so few wolves in the West that each one can cast a kind of enchantment. This fine book takes one animal, and uses it as a way to understand the vectors that whipsaw the last wild places. It will linger in your mind and heart. --Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and Radio Free Vermont

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