The Last Unicorn, William deBuys
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The Last Unicorn
A Search for One of Earth's Rarest Creatures

Author: William deBuys

Narrator: William deBuys

Unabridged: 12 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/10/2015

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

An award-winning author's quest to find and understand a creature as rare and enigmatic as any on Earth.

In 1992, in a remote mountain range, a team of scientists discovered the remains of an unusual animal with exquisite long horns. It turned out to be a living species new to Western science -- a saola, the first large land mammal discovered in fifty years.

Rare then and rarer now, a live saola had never been glimpsed by a Westerner in the wild when Pulitzer Prize finalist and nature writer William deBuys and conservation biologist William Robichaud set off to search for it in central Laos. Their team endured a punishing trek up and down white-water rivers and through mountainous terrain ribboned with the snare lines of armed poachers who roamed the forest, stripping it of wildlife.

In the tradition of Bruce Chatwin, Colin Thubron, and Peter Matthiessen, The Last Unicorn chronicles deBuys's journey deep into one of the world's most remote places. It's a story rich with the joys and sorrows of an expedition into undiscovered country, pursuing a species as rare and elusive as the fabled unicorn. As is true with the quest for the unicorn, in the end the expedition becomes a search for something more: the essence of wildness in nature, evidence that the soul of a place can endure, and the transformative power of natural beauty.

Author Bio

William deBuys is the author of ten books, including The Last Unicorn, one of Christian Science Monitor's 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2015; River of Traps, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a Pulitzer Prize nonfiction finalist; The Walk (an excerpt of which won a Pushcart Prize in 2008); and A Great Aridness. He was a Guggenheim Fellow from 2008-2009. He lives in New Mexico.

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