A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
Shortlisted for the 2018 J. Anthony Lukas Prize
An Outside Magazine Best Book of 2017
A Science Friday Best Science Book of 2017
“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
“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
"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
“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
“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
“[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)
“In this vibrant work of nonfiction, a Texas Monthly writer goes
into the mind—and heart—of a wolf. He tells the remarkable true
story of O-Six, a wolf brought back to the Rockies by
conservationists, as she fights hunters, cattle ranchers, and her
own species for survival.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“[American Wolf] reads like a novel... a testament to the genius of
Blakeslee’s tautly constructed narrative.”
—Outside
“Blakeslee takes readers into the snowy [Lamar Valley], and deep
into a genuinely human tale told with the energy and verve of a
bestselling thriller. A tight, dense narrative, American
Wolf races along like a predator on the hunt.”
—Texas Observer
“A masterful and elegant tale."
—Associated Press
“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.... Blakeslee’s masterly use of fiction writing
techniques to ratchet up the tension will hook a wide swath of
readers.”
—Library Journal (starred)
“A savory blend of hardcore journalism, biodiversity analysis,
weather and terrain reporting and good old-fashioned
storytelling... American Wolf is the tale of an
extraordinary wolf and those absorbed with her storied life.”
—Shelf Awareness
“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
“Engaging... a must read for researchers, citizen scientists, and
visitors to Yellowstone, where the story of the wolves continues to
evolve.”
—Science
“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
"[American Wolf] is about the compatibility and clash between man
and environment, heritage and the future, politics and practice,
and seemingly countless nuances that demonstrate the complexity of
the West."
—Idaho Statesman
“O-Six is the definition of an alpha—strong, cunning, and a
protector through and through. Her life in the wild is constantly
challenged by other wolves, cattle ranchers, and hunters. It’s a
“cultural clash” that will leave you on the edge of your
chair.”
—Departures
“[A] rich, poignant story of wolf recovery in Yellowstone and its
impacts on the surrounding countryside and
communities.”
—National Parks Traveler
“Blakeslee crafts a compelling narrative that allows him to explore
in a profound and intimate way the cultural, political, social and
economic factors that keep the presence of wolves in the West
controversial.”
—International Wolf
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