276°
Posted 20 hours ago

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival (Vintage Departures)

£9.9£99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

Vaillant looks at people’s innate reaction to tigers, reporting on a study which concludes that our awareness of predator-prey relationships is an in-born gift from our ancestors. There is a fascinating section on why predators are naturally selected for intelligence. A dumb tiger will starve to death if it does not first become a cat-sicle in the 40-below temperatures of winter in the Amur region.

This book sold millions of copies in several languages and remained on The New York Times and The Globe and Mail best-selling lists for over a year. Vaillant writes great descriptions of the Amur Tiger protective agents with succinct and poignant details. He was also able to build the locally legendary characters of the area's poachers, even the ones who became the tiger's prey. With forensic evidence, post-mortums of the many hunts and subsequently successful kills by the tiger of man or animal were fully enacted in engrossing action that'll put the chills up your spine. A reminder/warning though: this is not a thrill-a-minute action novel. This is a balanced non-fiction. Be prepared to spend some time, for instance, learning about Russia's Perestroika movement in the 80s or relating the detrimental buffalo slayings of the old American West to the big game hunting that nearly wiped out the tigers of Russia's Taiga. So just beware, you might learn something.

The book is ostensibly about a tiger who has turned unnatural and has killed and even eaten two people. Vaillant shows that this is very, very rare. This part of SE Siberia originally sustained a variety of animals in a boreal forest that is moderately warm in the summer and very cold (30 to 40 below) in the winter. Native Udeghe and Nanai people coexisted well with the tiger and consider it a god. Their shamanic religion tells them to honor and not molest the tiger. With the arrival of Russians beginning nearly 200 years ago, a lot of pressures have developed and upset the natural balance of things with logging, mining, and weapons that have been used to kill tigers. The natural food sources have diminished for the top animals and humans alike. Numbers of tigers have greatly decreased and the tigers remaining are stressed. Richard Parker eliminates all of them, except Pi. Pi works to survive alongside the tiger on the lifeboat, using his cleverness, fear, and knowledge to do so. While doing deliveries for his family business young Adam runs from a man who wants to mug him and finds himself in a rubbish dump on common land, where he finds a Tyger.. (you know.. burning bright and all those tygery things that tygers do) this would be weird enough, but these animals are supposed to be extinct in that world, and this one talks. As a foreigner and immigrant myself, I encountered nothing but welcoming and pleasant behaviour from the UK citizens. UK is one of the loveliest countries in Europe and I'm very grateful to live here. Our roundup of books about tigers includes several that draw attention to the plight of these magnificent big cats and the humans who risk their lives to protect them.

The story focuses on Adam Alhambra, a young lad who is the delivery boy of his family though really he dreams of becoming an artist. However his parents fear that this will draw unwanted attention and lead to greater persecution than they already suffer for having darker skin. However, when he stumbles onto the last living Tyger in a derelict building, magic takes hold of Adam's humble life and danger isn't far behind. It was adapted for the stage in 2008. The television adaptation was broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on Christmas Eve of 2019. There was also a very interesting magic system that didn't seem to be toned down for kids to read and understand, which i appreciated a lot (with an awesome fight sequence toward the end of the novel).Key quote: "Vaillant’s tiger tale is nuanced." Note that the man-killing tiger was injured, and could no longer hunt its usual prey -- as is common in historic man-eaters. And tigers need a LOT of meat to survive a Siberian winter. You do not want to be charged by a hungry, 500 pound tiger! It's quite a story, and I recommend it with a few reservations. 3.7 stars, rounded up.

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment