Description: The felling of a celebrated giant golden spruce tree in British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands takes on a potent symbolism in this probing study of an unprecedented act of eco-vandalism. Vaillant profiles the culprit, an ex-logger turned messianic environmentalist who toppled the famous tree.
Brief description: John Vaillant's acclaimed, award-winning nonfiction books, The Golden Spruce and The Tiger, were national bestsellers. His debut novel, The Jaguar's Children, was a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award. Vaillant has received the Governor General's Literary Award, the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, and the Pearson Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. He has written for, among others, The New Yorker, the Atlantic, National Geographic, and the Walrus. He lives in Vancouver.
Review Quotes: John Vaillant has written a work that will change how many people think about nature.--Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm