Almost Animal

A woman with a wild past, some serious family baggage, exciting outdoor adventures, emotional vulnerability, and beautiful writing on the natural world—Almost Animal shares key elements with contemporary classics like Educated, Wild, and H Is for Hawk.

Growing up in Utah, a descendant of its earliest Mormon inhabitants, Amy Irvine spent her life fighting against the patriarchy that was her inheritance. The one place she felt truly herself was in the natural world. She climbed red rock, skied backcountry powder, and fought wildfires. But after the birth of her daughter, she found herself in a situation uncannily similar to those of her pioneer forebears: isolated on a remote mesa, with a husband who was often gone, a child who was frequently and mysteriously ill, and a once-remarkable life that was growing smaller and smaller.

After a case of postpartum depression so intense it resembled zoochosis, the madness of a trapped animal, Irvine began the process of unearthing her deepest self and finding a more authentic connection with her child. Over the years that followed, encounters with animals—wild and domestic, predator and prey—led her forward, from a horseback showdown with a mountain lion to a more intimate run-in with the misunderstood black widow spider. And searching for guidance, she looked to the women who came before her: the tough, complicated ancestors whose lives, Irvine learned, are a testament to the freedom, loneliness, and myth-making of the West.

Gloriously written and fiercely felt, Almost Animal places Amy Irvine among our greatest writers on the bonds between the human and natural worlds—including Annie Dillard, Mary Oliver, and Wendell Berry—as well as contemporary chroniclers of the West, from Cheryl Strayed to Tara Westover.