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It’s December 1997, and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote Russian village. The tiger isn’t just killing people, it’s annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. As the trackers sift through the gruesome remains of the victims, they discover that these attacks aren’t random: the tiger is apparently engaged in a vendetta. Injured, starving, and extremely dangerous, the tiger must be found before it strikes again.
As he re-creates these extraordinary events, John Vaillant gives us an unforgettable portrait of this spectacularly beautiful and mysterious region. We meet the native tribes who for centuries have worshipped and lived alongside tigers, even sharing their kills with them. We witness the arrival of Russian settlers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, soldiers and hunters who greatly diminished the tiger populations. And we come to know their descendants, who, crushed by poverty, have turned to poaching and further upset the natural balance of the region.
Beautifully written and deeply informative, The Tiger circles around three main characters: Vladimir Markov, a poacher killed by the tiger; Yuri Trush, the lead tracker; and the tiger himself. It is an absolutely gripping tale of man and nature that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the taiga.
(P) 2010 Random House
As he re-creates these extraordinary events, John Vaillant gives us an unforgettable portrait of this spectacularly beautiful and mysterious region. We meet the native tribes who for centuries have worshipped and lived alongside tigers, even sharing their kills with them. We witness the arrival of Russian settlers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, soldiers and hunters who greatly diminished the tiger populations. And we come to know their descendants, who, crushed by poverty, have turned to poaching and further upset the natural balance of the region.
Beautifully written and deeply informative, The Tiger circles around three main characters: Vladimir Markov, a poacher killed by the tiger; Yuri Trush, the lead tracker; and the tiger himself. It is an absolutely gripping tale of man and nature that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the taiga.
(P) 2010 Random House
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Reviews
The structure of Vaillant's nonfiction hunting tale echoes that of Moby Dick, alternating a gripping chase narrative -- the search, in the late 1990s, for a man-eating Amur tiger in the Primorye region, on Russia's far eastern border -- with dense explanations of the culture and ecology surrounding the chase.
Like its majestic and terrifying subject, John Vaillant's book moves with subtlety and grace, commands a vast terrain - and has the power to shake the observer's soul . . . What unfolds, in a richly layered story that partners cunning with sublimity, is a tragedy in several acts and with multiple dimensions . . . The Tiger also counts as a supreme example of true-crime writing driven by wide-angle empathy and compassion. Some readers may choose to shelve it, not among cosy wildlife yarns, but with Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.
This is an altogether different kind of manhunt story . . . . The pursuit culminates in a breathtaking stand-off of man versus cat in a forest clearing - a denouement every bit as explosive and surprising as the raid in Abbottabad earlier this week.
Extraordinary . . . a brilliantly told tale of man and nature
Few writers have taken such pains to understand their monsters, and few depict them in such arresting prose.
An adventure so heart-thumping, it can feel like a spy thriller.
Compelling . . . a superb book - hyper-intelligent, wonderfully well-written, with a great cast, both human and animal, and at its heart, the amazing and truly chilling story of one tiger's winter campaign of murderous revenge
Riveting
By all means read Vaillant's magnificent book about the animal: The Tiger offers readers a shiver-inducing portrait of a predator that has been revered - and feared - like no other animal.
Brad Pitt has bought the movie rights to The Tiger, but with all due respect to Mr. Pitt, there's no way the movie will match Mr. Vaillant's book.
This masterful account of the terror, death and grief caused by a man-eating Amur tiger in Russia in 1997 is as mesmerising, rangy and relentless as the creature in question.
An affectionate account
An unbelievable tale, expertly told, with a few paragraphs that I would give my eye teeth to have written.
The Tiger takes us on a journey to the raw edge of civilization, to a world of vengeful cats and venal men, a world that, in Vaillant's brilliant telling, is simultaneously haunting and enchanting.
This book must be read by everybody who is interested in the conservation of wildlife. It takes you to the Russian wilderness to meet face-to-face with the Siberian tiger.
The Tiger is the sort of book I very much like and rarely find. Humans are hard-wired to fear tigers, so this book will attract intense interest.
An absolutely superb book.
A masterpiece
Brilliant
An instant classic
Astoundingly gripping
Read this fine, true book in the warmth, beside the flicker of firelight. Read it and be afraid. Be very afraid.
Breathtakingly exciting
A hair-raising tale in which conservation, madness and even murder collide.
Fascinating and compelling plot
Not so incidentally, if ever a nonfiction author has used the techniques of fiction any better to recount a real-life narrative, it is difficult to imagine who that author would be.
Part natural history, part Russian history and part thriller; it tells a gripping and gory story of what it's like to stalk - and be stalked by - the largest species of cat still walking the Earth.
John Vaillant is a literary shaman.
Enthralling
An extraordinary account of a tracker on the trail of a Siberian man-eating tiger in 1997. Along the way we get a load of tiger facts and a beautiful portrait of a forbidding region. It is a stunning, lovely, lovely book.
Writing in a vigorous, evocative style . . . Vaillant paints a haunting portrait of man's vexed relationship with nature.
A tale with memorable characters, a beautifully described setting and moments of startling drama . . . Vaillant's research is matched by the elegance of his writing . . . Vaillant is able to empathise so fully with both human and animal protagonists that it is hard to believe he wasn't there . . . This is a remarkable story, exceptionally well told