The Tiger - A True Story of Vengeance and Survival

Following a tweet from Massimo one day, I stumbled on an article about a man eating tiger. One thing led to other and I ended up reading this book The Tiger - A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant. This is my first book with a story background set in Russia, and that too a village in far-eastern Russia. So it took some time get used to the names, characters, cities and so on.

John Vaillant has done extensive research on this chilling incident in Sobolonye and meticulously recounted the tale in the book. I felt like as if I lived among the Inspection Tiger crew and the people of Sobolonye. The level of detail in the tiger attack take us back in time to the incident itself. It wasn’t just a kill and go type or a defensive attack. Both the attacks were well premedidated ones. The following words summed up the intensity of the attack in just one line.

To end a person’s life is one thing; to eradicate him from the face of the earth is another.

It was so detailed that sometimes it tested my patience, so I skipped few pages here and there. It was heart-wrenching to see beautiful creatures like Tigers being hunted for poaching and illegal trade. There were some interesting facts sprinkled throughout the book such as Russian invention of Kettle bell, Akira Kurosawa’s only non-japanese film based on the life of Dersu Uzala, tiger’s name in Sanskrit (vyāghraḥ) and many more. Hoping to watch the film some day.