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Fox and I

An Uncommon Friendship

ebook
1 of 2 copies available
1 of 2 copies available

Winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award * 2022 Nautilus Book Awards Gold Winner * Shortlisted for the John Burroughs Medal * Finalist for the Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize * Shortlisted for a Reading the West Book Award

Instant New York Times Bestseller * A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Year * 2021 Summer Reading Pick by Buzzfeed * New York Times Book Review * Kirkus * Time * Good Morning America * People * Washington Post

"The book everyone will be talking about. . . . Full of tenderness and understanding."—New York Times

An "extraordinary" (Oprah Daily) memoir about the friendship between a solitary woman and a wild fox.

When Catherine Raven finished her PhD in biology, she built herself a tiny cottage on an isolated plot of land in Montana. She was as emotionally isolated as she was physically, but she viewed the house as a way station, a temporary rest stop where she could gather her nerves and fill out applications for what she hoped would be a real job that would help her fit into society. In the meantime, she taught remotely and led field classes in nearby Yellowstone National Park.

Then one day she realized that a mangy-looking fox was showing up on her property every afternoon at 4:15 p.m. She had never had a regular visitor before. How do you even talk to a fox? She brought out her camping chair, sat as close to him as she dared, and began reading to him from The Little Prince. Her scientific training had taught her not to anthropomorphize animals, yet as she grew to know him, his personality revealed itself and they became friends.

From the fox, Catherine learned the single most important thing about loneliness: we are never alone when we are connected to the natural world. Friends, however, cannot save each other from the uncontained forces of nature.

Fox and I is a poignant and remarkable tale of friendship, growth, and coping with inevitable loss—and of how that loss can be transformed into meaning. It is both a timely tale of solitude and belonging as well as a timeless story of one woman whose immersion in the natural world will change the way we view our surroundings—each tree, weed, flower, stone, or fox.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 31, 2021
      Biologist Raven (Forestry) reflects on her relationship with a red fox in her offbeat and charming memoir. After fleeing the abusive household she grew up in, Raven started college at age 16 and worked as a park ranger in Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park before earning her doctorate in biology in 1999. Upon graduating, she bought herself a remote parcel of land in Montana and landed a gig teaching classes for the University of Montana Western in Yellowstone National Park. Around this time, a red fox began appearing near her cottage at the same time every afternoon. And so, she writes, “the necessity of entertaining a visitor at 4:15 p.m. each afternoon left me no choice but to read.” For “fifteen consecutive days,” she read Antoine Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince to the fox, and the two formed an unusual bond, spending days together hiking through the forest and carrying on imagined conversations. Along with reverently describing her furry friend—who had a “face so innocent that you would have concluded that he never stalked a bluebird, let alone dismembered one”—Raven writes poetically about the flora (“my sun-worshipping tenants”) and fauna around her. Rich and meditative, Raven’s musings on nature and solitude are delightful company.

    • Library Journal

      August 27, 2021

      In this lyrical debut memoir, biologist and former park ranger Raven explores her relationship with a wild fox born near her remote cabin in Montana. After buying property and building a cabin there, she encountered a scrawny male fox, who seemed to be unafraid of her; soon the fox (whom she calls Fox here) was rendezvousing with Raven at 4:15 pm each afternoon. The two develop a friendship as they share their lives--a relationship that the author considers to be her first real friendship. Because biologists tend to disdain anthropomorphism, Raven was initially reluctant to share the particulars of this friendship with peers, but she ultimately does so with this memoir. It is beautifully descriptive, with details about the natural history of Montana and fox biology. Raven brings to life the foxes (and other animals and plants she discusses) as she weaves in concepts from Melville's Moby Dick and Saint-Exup�ry's The Little Prince. Her evocative descriptions also relay the vivid scenery in and around her cabin. VERDICT A beautiful exploration of a human/wild animal relationship that intertwines Raven's musings about her past, present, and future into a mostly factual, at times imagined, whole that will appeal to readers who enjoy natural history essays, memoirs, foxes, the American West, or stories about women discovering themselves.--Sue O'Brien, Downers Grove, IL

      Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Kirkus

      June 1, 2021
      The touching memoir of a biologist who befriended a fox in the wilderness. Raven fled an abusive home at age 15, entering college at 16. Following her passion, she moved to the mountains of Montana, where she worked as a park ranger before earning her doctorate in biology. She built a small cottage in a valley and began leading a solitary life, working for the National Park Service and teaching classes online and in the field. According to the author, she never felt lonely, but she did long to fit in somewhere. One day, she noticed that a fox would show up outside her cottage at the same time each day. Based on her academic training and professional experiences, she had always avoided humanizing wild animals. However, something was special about this fox, and the two soon developed a bond. At first, Raven felt the need to defend their relationship to her colleagues and students, fielding their frequent and targeted questions. She also continually pondered relocating to a city where she could obtain a good-paying academic job with health insurance. But the more time she and the fox spent with each other, the more the author learned about herself and was able to let go of many of the conventional ideas that had been ingrained in her mind by society. With a scientific depth of examination accompanied by lyrical language, Raven explores the development of the bond between the fox and herself as well as the natural habitat surrounding her home, including the responsibilities of landownership. She also includes relevant references from literature that have inspired her views (she also read passages out loud to the fox). As the author charmingly explains, their relationship continued to grow deeper, providing her with a sense of purpose--until a natural tragedy struck her remote area of wilderness, forever altering the trajectory of her life. A heartfelt meditation on the power of nature and a touching homage to a beloved wild friend.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      June 1, 2021
      Against all odds, and over several months, a solitary-by-nature biologist and a wild red fox create a relationship. Raven decamped from her childhood home at 15 to escape her violent father and indifferent mother, then started college at 16. Years of rangering in national parks and obtaining a PhD brought her to a cabin on the front range of the Rockies, supported by part-time teaching jobs, and Fox. This quietly poetic memoir describes the somewhat meandering paths that Raven and Fox, a yearling male and the runt of the litter, traversed to achieve their unusual partnership. Alternating between her story and her observations, she recounts Fox's days of caching voles and avoiding dogs and older foxes and sunbathing on her gravel driveway. She also tells of explaining their relationship to skeptical students who are convinced she is anthropomorphizing the human/fox confluence. In time, Raven and Fox establish a pattern, meeting every day at 4:15, when she reads aloud to her attentive companion from Antoine de Saint-Exup�ry's The Little Prince. A soulful and indelible exploration of an interspecies friendship.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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