A serious, engrossing look at issues influencing state and federal conservation policy." ― Kirkus Reviews "Stolzenburg does not minimize the importance of removing these wild animals from populated areas, but he argues persuasively that an extermination policy is unnecessary and repugnant on moral grounds. Stolzenburg’s thoughtful and gripping narrative, in the end, is less about the sad heart of a lion on a fruitless quest, and more about the hearts and minds of the humans whose territory it traversed." ― Natural History Magazine Yet readers will find it both compelling and insightful, a worthy addition to the narratives of young adventurers in search of riches, love, and meaning. The journey quest at the heart of William Stolzenburg’s new book features an unconventional hero to be sure, a three-year-old mountain lion who remains unnamed throughout. Think of Jason and the Golden Fleece, Odysseus and his homeland, and, more recently, Sal Paradise in On the Road or W.P. "The journey quest - a hero’s voyage toward a remote and significant goal - is a core plot device in much of the world’s best folklore and literature. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. It is a testament to the resilience of nature, and a test of humanity’s willingness to live again beside the ultimate symbol of wildness.
Heart of a Lion is a story of one heroic creature pitting instinct against towering odds, coming home to a society deeply divided over his return. Along the way, the lion traverses lands with people gunning for his kind, as well as those championing his cause.
William Stolzenburg retraces his two-year journey-from his embattled birthplace in the Black Hills, across the Great Plains and the Mississippi River, through Midwest metropolises and remote northern forests, to his tragic finale upon Connecticut’s Gold Coast. It was the farthest landbound trek ever recorded for a wild animal in America, by a barely weaned teenager venturing solo through hostile terrain. The lion was three years old, with a DNA trail embarking from the Black Hills of South Dakota on a cross-country odyssey eventually passing within thirty miles of New York City. But a more fantastic scenario of facts soon unfolded. Speculations ran wild, the wildest of which figured him a ghostly survivor from a bygone century when lions last roamed the eastern United States. Beside the road lay a 140-pound mountain lion. The creature appeared as something out of New England’s forgotten past. Late one June night in 2011, a large animal collided with an SUV cruising down a Connecticut parkway.
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