The Age of Deer, Erika Howsare
The Age of Deer, Erika Howsare
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The Age of Deer
Trouble and Kinship with our Wild Neighbors

Author: Erika Howsare

Narrator: Erika Howsare

Unabridged: 11 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/16/2024


Synopsis

Deer have been an important part of the world that humans occupy for millennia. They're one of the only large animals that can thrive in our presence. In the twenty-first century, our relationship is full of contradictions: We hunt and protect them, we cull them from suburbs while making them an icon of wilderness, we see them both as victims and as pests. But there is no doubt that we have a connection to deer: in mythology and story, in ecosystems biological and digital, in cities and in forests.

Delving into the historical roots of these tangled attitudes and how they play out in the present, Erika Howsare observes scientists capture and collar fawns, hunters show off their trophies, a museum interpreter teaching American history while tanning a deer hide, an animal-control officer collecting the carcasses of deer killed by sharpshooters, and a woman bottle-raising orphaned fawns in her backyard. As she reports these stories, Howsare's eye is always on the bigger picture: Why do we look at deer in the ways we do, and what do these animals reveal about human involvement in the natural world? For fans of H is for Hawk and Fox & I, The Age of Deer offers a unique and intimate perspective on a very human relationship.

About Erika Howsare

Erika Howsare holds an MFA in literary arts from Brown University and has published two books of poetry. She also worked in local journalism for twenty years, covering culture and environmental issues. She teaches writing and contributes reviews and essays to various national outlets. A native of Pennsylvania, she lives in rural Virginia.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Chelsea on January 10, 2024

I was interested in this book because I love deer. I'm the person that always points out deer like it's a cute puppy. Growing up in Ohio it is very common to see deer in the wild, in your backyard and mounted on a wall. I like to think (possibly stupidly and naively) that a deer would meet me and be......more

Goodreads review by Dayton on May 21, 2024

This is a hard one to review. For the first 260 pages I was thinking four stars despite certain frustrations, but the last two chapters left me literally nauseous. The good: Howsare is very effective at exploring the various contradictory ideas (and practices) that contemporary US culture has about d......more

Goodreads review by Stephanie on December 29, 2024

In her poetic and scientific exploration "The Age of Deer," Erika Howsare delves into the complex relationship between humans and one of the few remaining large wild animal species we routinely interact with. Through a combination of lyrical prose and factual research, Howsare examines the history,......more

Goodreads review by Lungstrum on February 03, 2024

The book straddles a sometimes uncomfortable line between memoir and pop science explainer. I learned a lot, but not as much as I would have liked, about deer. I sympathized with the author’s moral quandaries and appreciated her frankness, but there were plenty of moments where I felt alienated by h......more

Goodreads review by Shain on May 06, 2024

This is a very thought provoking book about the intersection of humans and deer, throughout history, but mostly in our current societies. Deer are pretty incredible creatures, they have thrived alongside mankind in the 20th century in ways that few other species have managed, yet they remain undomes......more