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Part memoir, and part historically accurate re-telling of a fatal and horrific bear attack on two campers in 1991, this is a difficult book to read, both for its emotional content and its blood-curdling recounting of the most nightmarish encounter with wildlife this reader could ever imagine. Made all the more grisly by its terrible truth.

The author, a novelist, life-long outdoors enthusiast and a camping guide, has spent years exploring and enjoying the Canadian wilderness, and in particular, the spectacular lakes of Alconguin Park.

Extremely close to her father, an English Professor of some reknown, as a child her world was ripped apart by his sudden death of melanoma at the age of forty two. As the author’s life evolves, joy and adventure mingles with grief and fear, as an obsession with bears (and the story behind this particular attack) develops, and will run along in parallel.

Encyclopedic in her attention to detail, the authors insight into bears and their nature and habits makes for absolutely fascinating reading, an investigative obsession that becomes clearer to the reader as (no spoilers here) the author develops her own scary and potentially deadly medical history.

With incredible finesse, the authors dips and dives across themes, pulling the reader in across a journey that took my breath away in parts, and had me reaching for tissues in others. As the author grapples with issues including: learning to face the terrors of both what we know and what we can never know; the fear of death, the monster, that follows us all,in the shadows; our organic and shared primal wildness; and the threadedness of love, making it all, every last bit of it, resoundingly worthwhile.

All in all a terrific read, this book is hard to put down, and harder still to forget. I listened to the audiobook, and loved the intimacy and accessibility of the author as narrator — making for a truly immersive (and even more emotional) literary experience.

A great big thank you to #Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts provided are my own.