A Shape in the Dark
Living and Dying with Brown Bears
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
"With its vivid prose, this moving homage to Alaska and those who live there really hits home."― Publishers Weekly
2021 Banff Mountain Book Award finalist in Mountain Environment and Natural History
2021 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards Silver Winner in Nature
In A Shape in the Dark, wilderness guide and lifelong Alaskan Bjorn Dihle weaves personal experience with historical and contemporary accounts to explore the world of brown bears--from encounters with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, frightening attacks including the famed death of Timothy Treadwell, the controversies related to bear hunting, the animal’s place in native cultures, and the impacts on the species from habitat degradation and climate change. Much more than a report on human-bear interactions, this compelling story intimately explores our relationship with one of the world’s most powerful predators. An authentic and thoughtful work, it blends outdoor adventure, history, and elements of memoir to present a mesmerizing portrait of Alaska’s brown bears and grizzlies, informed by the species’ larger history and their fragile future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wilderness guide Dihle creates a wide-ranging portrait of brown bears in this adventurous collection of essays. The book, Dihle writes, is "about our relationship with brown bears," though it's also an ode to Alaskan wilderness as his home state becomes "more encroached upon." His experiences run between panic and reverence in the face of the "incredibly muscled and poised" animal, and interspersed with his encounters are profiles of past adventurers and their relationships with bears. Among them are John "Grizzly" Adams (it's "unlikely that anyone has been mauled by bears more" than him, Dihle notes); Theodore Roosevelt (who "famously refused to kill a bear"); and hunting guide Ralph Young (who said he loved his wife but "loved the bears more"). In one touching moment, Dihle reveals that he named his son after the Shiras grizzlies from southeast Alaska: "When he is older, I will tell him the story of his name. How the government and corporations wanted to clear-cut and build roads across Admiralty." He creates memorable portraits of fellow explorers, but where Dihle's writing shines is in his unwavering appreciation of and commitment to preserving bears' wild habitat: "Once it's gone, it's gone forever." With its vivid prose, this moving homage to Alaska and those who live there really hits home.
Customer Reviews
Recommend reading
Excellent reading! The author explores in depth the story of brown bears in SE Alaska and our relationship with them. If you want to understand Alaska, brown bears and even people a little better I recommend you read this.