In our reading and discussion this year, we have been exploring our understanding of our world, the uses we make of it, our wanderings across it, our settlements on it, our confrontations with the elements and animals that inhabit it, and our confrontations with each other. Our next two books explore what John Vaillant calls the "collisions between human ambition and the natural world."The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant takes readers to the vast, snowy taiga of Russia's Far East, where an Amur tiger is stalking humans, bent on revenge against poachers, while a team of trackers searches for the tiger before it can strike again . . . Vaillant has written a suspenseful narrative that is interwoven with beautifully written and deeply informative descriptions of the unique "boreal jungle" in which Amur tigers live, the people who have harmoniously coexisted with these tigers for thousands of years, and the complex political and economic events that have placed them in conflict with one another. According to Library Journal, "What spirits this adventure narrative from compelling to brilliant is Vaillant's use of the tiger hunt as an allegorical lens through which to understand the cultural, economic, and environmental devastation of post-Communist Russia." Most fascinating of all, Vaillant helps readers to understand not only the power and beauty of the Amur tiger, but also what the world must be like from its point of view.
Vaillant says his book was inspired by a documentary about the events in his book, Conflict Tiger, directed by Sasha Snow and shot on location in Russia's Far East in the winter of 2004. Snow is now working on a documentary based on Vaillant's first book, The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed, about logging in British Columbia and the felling of a golden spruce sacred to the Haida Indians, that also dramatizes the "collisions between human ambition and the natural world." Visit the Conflict Tiger website to view a clip of the film.
Visit Vaillant's website, http://www.thetigerbook.com/, for links to articles about the Amur tiger and websites of organizations working to prevent poaching and trafficking in Amur tigers.
Simon Winchester suggests we "read this fine, true book in the warmth, beside the flicker of firelight. Read it and be afraid. Be very afraid." We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, August 2, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, August 18, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.
Vaillant says his book was inspired by a documentary about the events in his book, Conflict Tiger, directed by Sasha Snow and shot on location in Russia's Far East in the winter of 2004. Snow is now working on a documentary based on Vaillant's first book, The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed, about logging in British Columbia and the felling of a golden spruce sacred to the Haida Indians, that also dramatizes the "collisions between human ambition and the natural world." Visit the Conflict Tiger website to view a clip of the film.
Visit Vaillant's website, http://www.thetigerbook.com/, for links to articles about the Amur tiger and websites of organizations working to prevent poaching and trafficking in Amur tigers.
Simon Winchester suggests we "read this fine, true book in the warmth, beside the flicker of firelight. Read it and be afraid. Be very afraid." We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, August 2, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, August 18, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.
