Cry of the Wild: Eight Animals Under Siege

by Charles Foster

Genres: Nonfiction, Natural History

288 pages, Paperback

Published February 18, 2025

About the author

Charles Foster is a Fellow of Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford. He is a qualified veterinarian, teaches medical law and ethics, and is a practicing barrister. Much of his life has been spent on expeditions: he has run a 150-mile race in the Sahara, skied to the North Pole, and suffered injuries in many desolate and beautiful landscapes. He has written on travel, evolutionary biology, natural history, anthropology, and philosophy.

Reviews

[Penelope · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must confess I picked this up for the cover, but my goodness I stayed for the words. Eight stories told through the eyes of eight animals, each of them as unique as their teller filled with both tragedy and joy, despair and hope and every emotion in between. It's some of the most inventive nature writing I've read, and one which cuts to the heart of our damaged relationship with the natural world in a way they really makes you consider how we can do better. I'd recommend this to anyone who loves great storytelling, anyone who loves good nature writing and anyone who wants to know more about our non-human relations. Utterly brilliant!

[Emma M Broom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautifuly written in quite a unique poetic/scientific way, but each story is brutal and heartbreaking. Thoroughly depressing read.

[Eleanor · Rating 2 out of 5]

So depressing! I loved this book so much halfway through the first story that I bought a copy for my friend. Mistake. By the third story a pattern was emerging and sure enough every tale is thoroughly depressing.
I think it’s a great idea to blend the idea of how humans are breaking nature into the tales, but it really hammered the point in unnecessarily. A bit of subtlety goes a long way, this was just over the top bleak.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

A depressing read and at times confusing.

I guess it is the author's version of a call for change, as in his own words "It's my generation and preceding generations who've besieged and raped and trussed and poisoned the world. Those guilty generations and their ways are about to be extinct as the dodos we casually and greedily clubbed. Those who follow have seen what selfishness does to rivers, forests and our souls, and they'll not be so stupid as to follow in our footsteps." Page 230-231