Deer Man
Seven Years of Living in the Wild
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3.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
For readers of Fox & I comes “a fable very much for our time.”—The TIMES
“Unusual and fascinating... Read this book and enter into another world."— Jane Goodall
In this sensuous and moving memoir, a young man forms a powerful connection with deer while living alone in the woods for seven years.
Geoffroy Delorme does not fit in the human world. As a boy, he dreams of transforming into a fox so he can escape into the forest. As he gets older, he disappears into the woods at night, drawn to the rhythms of animal life. One night, an encounter with a deer changes his life: from then on, he knows he wants to live among them.
Delorme becomes a creature of the forest. He learns to live without a tent or sleeping bag and forage for whatever food he can find. He blends in with the deer and, slowly, they accept him into their world. He witnesses their births and deaths, courtship and battles, ostracism and friendship over the cycles of their lives. Among the deer, he experiences the beauty, pain, fear, and joy of a life lived as a part of nature, not separate from it.
In his final year in the forest, Delorme meets a woman walking through the trees. He knows he can stay in the forest and die with his friends—or he can leave, and speak their truth to a human world that desperately needs to hear it.
Deer Man is a moving story of what it’s like to be an outsider and how forming connections with the natural world can help us feel less alone. A unique and powerful window into how far one human is willing to go to understand an animal, Deer Man asks us to never take for granted the flora and fauna of our world, and to work for their protection in whatever ways we can.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Delorme recounts living in France's Forêt de Bord among the roe deer in his poignant debut. Drawn to the forest and its fauna, Delorme spent years going "back and forth between human society and wilderness" before opting to live with his "real family," roe deer. He starts by observing the animals' behavior, to "mimic the way the squirrels look after themselves" and the way deer rest. In this manner, he becomes another creature in their world and uses only a few items of his own (matches, a knife, a camera, and a small mirror among them) to survive and document his experiences. Eventually, Delorme recognizes individual deer and they become characters in their own right: a deer named Star giving birth is cause for exhilaration, and when she's shot by hunters, it's a haunting moment of loss. As well, Delorme outlines his survival techniques and his hygiene routine ("I run my index finger over my teeth with a mixture of water and ash, and the job's done"), and movingly describes the drastic lifestyle change: "I am just happy to be here," he writes, "and to feel nature rather than to strip it bare." Nature lovers will delight in these candid reflections. Photos.
