MONSTER OF GOD: THE MAN-EATING PREDATOR IN THE JUNGLES OF HISTORY AND THE MIND. By David Quammen.

2003 1st edition. 8vo (162 x 242mm). Ppxii,515. B/w maps, bibliography. Black cloth spine over cream paper-covered boards, spine titled in red-gilt.

An extended essay on human beings as "an intermediate link in a food chain": a palaeontological and modern history of the many and various animals which eat people, and their relationship with the societies which provide their prey. David Quammen also examines the future of the various man-eating species, which is generally not hopeful. "Erudite, witty, and utterly fascinating, David Quammen's exegesis of the life and habits of four parlous predators - creatures that can and do consume humans - sets a new standard in nature writing. Here we have biology, history, sociology, politics and behaviourism combined in as full and rich a portrait of these animals and their environment as has ever been produced." (T.C. Boyle). "David Quammen has given us a frontline report from the longest war in human history - the struggle against man-eating carnivores - and shows how much we have lost by winning it." (Barbara Ehrenreich). Chapters include: The food chain of power and glory; Once there were lions; The muskrat conundrum; Leviathan with a hook; Shadow of the nine-toed bear; The teeth and the meat; Perestroika; Science fiction ending.