Full throttle, full immersion, full honesty, all surrender.LESLIE JAMISON, AUTHOR OF THE EMPATHY EXAMSA starting place for healing our upended selves, families, culture, world.CRAIG CHILDS, AUTHOR OF THE ANIMAL DIALOGUESA ferocious, incandescent memoir about motherhood, liberation, and the natural worldfollowing one womans journey to reclaim her wildest self.A descendant of Utahs earliest Mormon inhabitants, Amy Irvine spent her young adulthood rebelling against the patriarchy that was her inheritance. She sought adventure outdoors, climbing red rock, skiing backcountry powder, and fighting wildfires. She tested every limit imposed on her. But after the birth of her daughter, Irvine found herself in a situation uncannily similar to those of her pioneer forebears: isolated on a remote Colorado 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 coming back to the world and unearthing a deeper connection with her child. Over the years that followed, encounters with animalswild and domestic, predator and preyled her forward, from a horseback showdown with a mountain lion to a more intimate run-in with the misunderstood black widow. 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 mythmaking of the American West.Gloriously written and fiercely felt, Almost Animal places Amy Irvine among our greatest writers on the bonds between the human and natural worldsincluding Annie Dillard, Mary Oliver, and Wendell Berryas well as contemporary chroniclers of the American West, from Cheryl Strayed to Tara Westover.

Full throttle, full immersion, full honesty, all surrender.LESLIE JAMISON, AUTHOR OF THE EMPATHY EXAMSA starting place for healing our upended selves, families, culture, world.CRAIG CHILDS, AUTHOR OF THE ANIMAL DIALOGUESA ferocious, incandescent memoir about motherhood, liberation, and the natural worldfollowing one womans journey to reclaim her wildest self.A descendant of Utahs earliest Mormon inhabitants, Amy Irvine spent her young adulthood rebelling against the patriarchy that was her inheritance. She sought adventure outdoors, climbing red rock, skiing backcountry powder, and fighting wildfires. She tested every limit imposed on her. But after the birth of her daughter, Irvine found herself in a situation uncannily similar to those of her pioneer forebears: isolated on a remote Colorado 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 coming back to the world and unearthing a deeper connection with her child. Over the years that followed, encounters with animalswild and domestic, predator and preyled her forward, from a horseback showdown with a mountain lion to a more intimate run-in with the misunderstood black widow. 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 mythmaking of the American West.Gloriously written and fiercely felt, Almost Animal places Amy Irvine among our greatest writers on the bonds between the human and natural worldsincluding Annie Dillard, Mary Oliver, and Wendell Berryas well as contemporary chroniclers of the American West, from Cheryl Strayed to Tara Westover.