Bud Werner Memorial Library

Bud Werner Memorial Library and Born Free Wildlife Rehabilitation present an evening with bestselling author John Vaillant talking about The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival.

About 350 adult Siberian or Amur tigers are left in the wild, with 95% of them in the Russian Far East. Vaillant tells their story in words and photographs during a free library talk.

“[A] riveting story . . . Vaillant’s book teaches a lesson that humankind desperately needs to remember: When you murder a tiger, you not only kill a strong and beautiful beast, you extinguish a passionate soul.”—Washington Post

“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. . . .Think of Vaillant as a younger version of John McPhee, but on steroids.”—The Seattle Times

Tiger photo by John Goodrich. The tiger is named Lyuti, which means "ferocious" in Russian.

About the book
The Tiger is a riveting account of the hunt for a marauding tiger -- an incredible story, told with a spareness and vividness that echoes Jon Krakauer, Peter Matthiessen, and other classic writers who explore man's interactions with nature. Nature calls The Tiger a "conservation thriller."

Set in the bleak and forbidding cold of Siberia, and without ever resorting to anthropomorphism, Vaillant renders a Siberian tiger as a real character. This is a story of a primal subject, one that is almost premodern despite having happened just ten years ago. Vaillant explores the nature of predator and prey,and brings us into a world completely foreign to our own protected existence.

Vaillant’s carefully drawn Siberia is a place of extraordinary privation, one where people still struggle to survive. He renders the will and resourcefulness required to live in such a place, and paints a compelling portrait of the people of the region. Slated to become a film for Focus Films starring Brad Pitt, The Tiger gives us an edge-of-your-seat story of one man’s struggle against nature’s most fearsome and efficient predator.

About the author
John Vaillant is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic and Outside, among others.  His first book, The Golden Spruce, was a bestseller and won several awards, including the Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction (Canada).  His most recent book, The Tiger, is also an award-winning bestseller. It was a Best Book of 2010 selection by the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Christian Science Monitor, and an Orion Book Award finalist. Of particular interest to Vaillant are stories that explore collisions between human ambition and the natural world. 
 

John Vaillant's books will be available for sale and author signing courtesy of Off the Beaten Path. Half of all proceeds from book sales at the library event benefit The Siberian Tiger Project.

John Vaillant's talk at the library is part of a weekend of events in Steamboat Springs organized by Born Free Wildlife Rehabilitation in support of The Siberian Tiger Project. Born Free Wildlife Rehabilitation is a Routt County nonprofit organization with a mission to rescue sick, abandoned or injured animals and release them back into the wild. This event is free, however any donations at the door will support The Siberian Tiger Project's work.