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In the Shadow of Man
By Jane Goodall
This is Goodall’s original story of how she and her husband set up camp near the Gombe Stream Reserve in Tanzania to observe the chimpanzees. Before her, few scientists had seriously considered that other animals had personalities like people, but these chimpanzees formed complex social relationships with each other — and her. The descriptions are still as vivid and captivating as they were 50 years ago. I modeled Cowpuppy after this.
The Hunter
By Julia Leigh
In this slim novel, a man is hired to hunt down and bring back the last surviving thylacine, aka the Tasmanian tiger. The thylacine carries great symbolic meaning to Australians because it was hunted to extinction in 1936. To this day, many people believe they are still hiding in the bush. Leigh’s novel captures the entrancing atmosphere of wild Tasmania (I’ve been there, looking for thylacines, too). But it is ultimately about our relationship to the ghosts of the animals we’ve exterminated.
Lonesome Dove
By Larry McMurtry
If I could have one book on a desert island, it would be Lonesome Dove. It is ostensibly about two old Texas rangers — Captain Woodrow Call and Augustus “Gus” McRae — who drive a herd of cattle from Texas to Montana. It doesn’t go well. But to say this is a book about a cattle drive is like saying Moby Dick is about whaling. Lonesome Dove is about relationships. All of the animals — pigs, cattle, and horses — connect the men to each other in ways they can’t do themselves. The borderline-autistic Captain Call’s most meaningful relationship is with a horse that nobody else can ride — a mare called the Hell Bitch.