In American Wolf, Blakeslee does a fine job presenting the wolf's basic biological requirements, from abundant prey source…to secure denning sites. But he also illustrates the far more complicated and ever-dynamic human elements affecting the wolves. The politics of ranchers—some for wolves, others against—and antigovernment zealots, hunting outfitters, Congress, courts and judges, and tourism operators all exert a sculpting pressure on where and how and if the wolf can live…American Wolf takes its place in a long lineage of wolf books.

11/27/2017
Bramhall gives an excellent reading of this fascinating look at the lives and deaths of the pack of wolves at Yellowstone National park, specifically the wolf known as O-Six. Blakeslee’s book begins with a prologue set in 2012, as a hunter prepares to shoot O-Six. Bramhall eloquently brings to life the moments prior to the hunter taking the shot that ended the wolf’s life. Bramhall’s calm, relaxed delivery recounts the rest of the story, not just of the life of remarkable O-Six, who was a fierce hunter, protective parent, and dynamic leader, but also the history and controversies surrounding the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone. It is a story as informative as it is emotionally moving, and Bramhall presents it with a skillful, even-handed delivery. Blakeslee reads the book’s epilogue that recounts his disturbing but intriguing meeting with the unrepentant hunter who shot O-Six. A Crown hardcover. (Oct.)

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
Shortlisted for the 2018 J. Anthony Lukas Prize
An Outside Magazine Best Book of 2017
A Science Friday Best Science Book of 2017

“Blakeslee draws O-Six in novelistic... detail, using the conflicting insight and perspective of biologists, politicians, ranchers, environmentalists, lawyers, other animals, and hunters.... Seeing a wolf is exceptionally rare, and this book is as close as most readers will come.” 
—The New Yorker

“A matriarch overthrown in what seems fairly described as a 'putsch,' marauding gangs running attacks into neighboring territory, an hours-long standoff with a grizzly, a discarded water bottle—a rarity in the wilderness of a national park—tossed around and protected like a prized new toy. The lives of the wolves in Yellowstone are often dramatic, but are full of touching, tender moments too, as Nate Blakeslee vividly writes in American Wolf.”
—Los Angeles Times
 
"The story of one wolf’s struggle to survive in the majestic Yellowstone National Park offers an ambitious look through the eyes of an endangered animal."
—New York Times Book Review

“Ambitious... a significant and engaging work. It’s easy to write about the importance of local social life. It’s harder to know what to do to support it.... Klinenberg’s argument has a powerful simplicity. Look after the social infrastructure and social bonds will largely look after themselves.”
—Financial Times

“American Wolf takes its place in a long lineage of wolf books.... [T]here are cherished, striking images here…testament to the ever-flowing life force that is the wolf.”
—Rick Bass, New York Times Book Review

“[American Wolf] is a startlingly intimate portrait of the intricate, loving, human-like interrelationships that govern wolves in the wild, as observed in real time by a cadre of dedicated wolf-watchers—in the end, a drama of lupine love, care, and grief.”
—Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake 
 
“Wild, poignant, and compelling, American Wolf is an important, beautifully wrought book about animals, about values, and about living on this earth.”
—Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief and Rin Tin Tin
 
“A transcendent tale of the American West."
—S. C. Gwynne, author of Empire of the Summer Moon and Rebel Yell
 
“Gripping and fascinating! Wolf versus wolf, wolf versus man, man versus man.”
—Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale and Hag-Seed (via Twitter)

“In this vibrant work of nonfiction, a Texas Monthly writer goes into the mind—and heart—of a wolf. He tells the remarkable true story of O-Six, a wolf brought back to the Rockies by conservationists, as she fights hunters, cattle ranchers, and her own species for survival.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“[American Wolf] reads like a novel... a testament to the genius of Blakeslee’s tautly constructed narrative.”
—Outside

“Blakeslee takes readers into the snowy [Lamar Valley], and deep into a genuinely human tale told with the energy and verve of a bestselling thriller. A tight, dense narrative, American Wolf races along like a predator on the hunt.”
—Texas Observer

“A masterful and elegant tale."
—Associated Press

“Beautiful, detailed... [American Wolf] centers on the rise, reign, and family life of O-Six, matriarch of the Lamar Canyon pack and so well-known to park visitors that the New York Times gave her an obituary.”
—Publisher's Weekly (starred) 

“The fight... [over] Yellowstone’s wolves is embodied in O-Six’s story, told with great immediacy and empathy in a tale that reads like fiction. This one will grab readers and impel them into the heart of the conflict.”
—Booklist (starred)

“Utterly compelling.... Blakeslee’s masterly use of fiction writing techniques to ratchet up the tension will hook a wide swath of readers.”        
—Library Journal (starred)

“A savory blend of hardcore journalism, biodiversity analysis, weather and terrain reporting and good old-fashioned storytelling... American Wolf is the tale of an extraordinary wolf and those absorbed with her storied life.”
—Shelf Awareness
 
“Nate Blakeslee has achieved the Jack London-like feat of creating a great story whose main character is an animal."
—Nicholas Lemann, author of The Big Test and Redemption
 
“There are so few wolves in the West that each one can cast a kind of enchantment. This fine book takes one animal, and uses it as a way to understand the vectors that whipsaw the last wild places. It will linger in your mind and heart.”
—Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and Radio Free Vermont

“American Wolf is an intimate and riveting book about America’s most iconic and embattled predator.... A wonderful and welcome addition to the pantheon of nature literature.”
—John Vaillant, author of The Tiger and The Golden Spruce

“A well-rendered story... evenhanded but clearly and rightly on the side of the wolves.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Gorgeously written, and offering stunning insights into both animal and human nature, American Wolf is a masterly feat of science journalism.”
—Michael Finkel, author of The Stranger in the Woods

“Engaging... a must read for researchers, citizen scientists, and visitors to Yellowstone, where the story of the wolves continues to evolve.” 
—Science
 
“As in a great novel, we are swept along in a multi-generational saga involving matters of character, courtship, and shifting social relations."
—Tom Kizzia, author of Pilgrim’s Wilderness
 
“Heartbreaking front-line coverage of our war on the wild.... Blakeslee hauntingly gives the victims faces, families, and stories. A quietly angry, aching, important book.”
—Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast
 
“A compelling environmental drama of the reintroduction of wolves to the Rockies, as clear-sighted on human politics as it is on wolf politics."
—Neil Ansell, author of Deep Country
 
“The Game of Thrones story of modern western wolves, [unfolding] in just as riveting a fashion. It is an absolutely mesmerizing read.”
—Dan Flores, author of Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History
 
“American Wolf gives us true profiles of wolf lives lived in their actual families. And when humans get involved, the trajectory of their lives forever changes.”
—Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel
 
“Written with heart, but not sentimentality, American Wolf is nothing less than Shakespearean tragedy played out against the backdrop of our troubled relationship with nature.”
—J.B. MacKinnon, author of The Once and Future World

"[American Wolf] is about the compatibility and clash between man and environment, heritage and the future, politics and practice, and seemingly countless nuances that demonstrate the complexity of the West."
—Idaho Statesman

“O-Six is the definition of an alpha—strong, cunning, and a protector through and through. Her life in the wild is constantly challenged by other wolves, cattle ranchers, and hunters. It’s a “cultural clash” that will leave you on the edge of your chair.”
—Departures

“[A] rich, poignant story of wolf recovery in Yellowstone and its impacts on the surrounding countryside and communities.”  
—National Parks Traveler

“Blakeslee crafts a compelling narrative that allows him to explore in a profound and intimate way the cultural, political, social and economic factors that keep the presence of wolves in the West controversial.”
—International Wolf

★ 08/01/2017
Blakeslee, writer at large for Texas Monthly and author of the award-winning Tulia, tells the story of the rise and fall of O-Six, the "world's most famous wolf." O-Six had star appeal, with her large size and attractive markings, her hunting prowess, and her moxie; she was one of the most visible wolves in Yellowstone when wolf-watching was drawing people in and social media was new. Readers will learn much about lupines: their pack behavior, penchant for play, hunting strategy, etc. But there's also a strong human angle—the wolves are seen mostly through the eyes of park ranger Rick McIntyre, who put together an obsessive run of consecutive wolf-watching days and compiled thousands of pages of notes in the process (another watcher, Laurie Lyman, also figures). Then there's the villain of the piece: "Steven Turnbull" (a pseudonym), who lurks about the periphery of the tale. VERDICT From its powerful cover art to its sad epilog, this book is utterly compelling. Blakeslee's masterly use of fiction writing techniques to ratchet up the tension will hook a wide swath of readers. Leonardo DiCaprio's film company has picked up the movie rights, promising that O-Six's celebrity will grow even more. [See Prepub Alert, 4/10/17.]—Robert Eagan, Windsor P.L., Ont.

Narrator Mark Bramhall's gravelly voice is a perfect match for this timeless yet contemporary story of history and progress in the American West, featuring a particularly tenacious wolf known as O-Six. The recent reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone has proven to be a flashpoint between conservationists, businessmen, and politicians. By focusing on the origin, life, and death of O-Six, listeners meet a cast of characters representing all sides of the conflict. Bramhall's steady narration moves smoothly from scenes describing wolf behavior to those detailing relevant legal history. Though a concerted effort is made to avoid anthropomorphism, the admiration that arises out of endless hours of wolf observation is clear, and even without names, the wolves become quickly discernible with personalities and traits all their own. A.S. 2018 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

2017-08-07
On-the-ground reporting on the fate of Canis lupus as a creature once nearly extirpated struggles to regain a home in the Rockies.Think life is tough for American humans? Try living as a wolf, even with the putative protection of the federal government in Yellowstone National Park. As Thomas McNamee reported 20 years ago in The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone, reintroduction was a venture as much political as ecological. Now comes Texas Monthly writer Blakeslee (Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town, 2005) to chronicle just how true that observation remains. The author serves up two protagonists: a renegade biologist named Rick McIntyre who, more than any living individual, was instrumental in returning the wolf to its former home and keeping it safe there, and a wolf named O-Six, an alpha female who was a star in the social media world thanks to some canny promotion by reintroduction activists. As Blakeslee tracks O-Six's movements through the Lamar Valley of Wyoming and surrounding areas, he examines the lives of other wolves in and around the park, some in her pack, others in competing wolf clans. O-Six's travels led to tragedy, as he writes; he interviews the hunter who killed her, who proudly tells him, "I'm against wolves…I want to make sure that's clear." It is. Blakeslee takes pains to try to understand the views of hunters and ranchers while making sure that it's similarly clear that the wolves merit a place in the sun. Along the way, he examines the long and ongoing back and forth of listing and delisting the wolf on the federal list of protected species, the wolf being, to many in the western states affected, a sort of federal agent and therefore automatically suspect. In the main, Blakeslee's well-rendered story will be familiar to anyone who has followed the Yellowstone wolves, but those who have not will find this a solid overview of recent events—evenhanded but clearly and rightly on the side of the wolves.