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A Thousand Trails Home: Living with Caribou Kindle Edition

by Seth Kantner (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 124 ratings
See all formats and editions
2023 Independent Publisher Book Award GOLD in Environmental/Ecology

2022 National Outdoor Book Award Winner in Natural History Literature


"A Thousand Trails Home is a book of supernal majesty, a book to break and restore your heart. Seth Kantner’s devotion to the living pulse and unity of the skein of wonder that is the Alaskan wilderness haunts and inspires me." -- Louise Erdrich, author of The Night Watchman

    • Bestselling, award-winning author of Ordinary Wolves, a debut novel Publisher’s Weekly called “a tour de force”

    • Conservation-based story of changing Arctic from an on-the-ground perpective

    • Features full-color photography throughout


    A stunningly lyrical firsthand account of a life spent hunting, studying, and living alongside caribou,     A Thousand Trails Home encompasses the historical past and present day, revealing the fragile intertwined lives of people and animals surviving on an uncertain landscape of cultural and climatic change sweeping the Alaskan Arctic. Author Seth Kantner vividly illuminates this critical story about the interconnectedness of the Iñupiat of Northwest Alaska, the Western Arctic Caribou Herd, and the larger Arctic region. This story has global relevance as it takes place in one of the largest remaining intact wilderness ecosystems on the planet, ground zero for climate change in the US. This compelling and complex tale revolves
    around the politics of caribou, race relations, urban vs. rural demands, subsistence vs. sport hunting, and cultural priorities vs. resource extraction—a story that requires a fearless writer with an honest voice and an open heart.
    Previous page
    1. Print length
      393 pages
    2. Language
      English
    3. Sticky notes
      On Kindle Scribe
    4. Publisher
      Mountaineers Books
    5. Publication date
      September 1, 2021
    6. File size
      114392 KB
    7. Page Flip
      Enabled
    8. Word Wise
      Enabled
    9. Enhanced typesetting
      Enabled
    10. See all details
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    Editorial Reviews

    Review

    Seth Kantner is the most interesting person and the finest writer I know. I savor his writing as I have savored the work of Annie Proulx and John McPhee. Nature is not landscape or subject matter for him; it is sustenance, literal and emotional. He doesn’t just write what he knows; he writes what he lives and breathes. This book is extraordinary. -- Mary Roach ― author of Stiff, Gulp, and Grunt

    A Thousand Trails Home is both an intimate memoir of a family who made their home above the Arctic Circle, and a well-observed natural history of the caribou they hunted and consumed. Seth Kantner has become an important Alaskan writer with a singular voice--a humble and exacting observer of a world he is privileged to have experienced. The result is extraordinary. -- John Straley ― poet and author of the Cecil Younger Mysteries

    A Thousand Trails Home is a book of supernal majesty, a book to break and restore your heart. Seth Kantner’s devotion to the living pulse and unity of the skein of wonder that is the Alaskan wilderness haunts and inspires me. -- Louise Erdrich ― author of The Night Watchman

    Beautifully written and deeply introspective,     A Thousand Trails Home may be the book Kantner has been aiming his powers at all along, a masterwork only he could deliver. -- Nancy Lord ― Anchorage Daily News

    An exceptionally well written, impressively informative, and inherently fascinating read from first page to last. ―     Midwest Book Review

    Beloved Alaskan author Seth Kantner has written his magnum opus.     A Thousand Trails Home is an inspiring and important book about Alaskan culture, biology, philosophy, history--and love for the creature at the heart of life on the tundra. Through deft storytelling and exquisite, gut-wrenching prose, Kantner shows us how caribou might be the ultimate harbinger of what is to come for humanity if we can’t slow down and learn from the land, the elders, and those animals on whom our very existence depends. -- Don Rearden ― author of The Raven’s Gift

    A Thousand Trails Home is a labor of love that advocates for more balanced ways of treating caribou and protecting the amazing Alaskan wilderness. ― Foreword Reviews

    The breathtaking photographs that illustrate this book, in concert with essays that describe all that is happening underfoot and beyond the horizon to unravel this beauty, make     A Thousand Trails Home gut-wrenching in its impact. -- Richard Adams Carey ― Wall Street Journal

    A Thousand Trails Home is a literary tour de force that reaffirms Seth Kantner’s place as one of Alaska’s premier writers. An amalgam of intimate autobiography and impeccable nature writing, Kantner’s luminous prose transports the reader to a timeless world, shaped by great waves of hooves and antlers. -- Nick Jans ― author of A Wolf Called Romeo

    …his own personal story…reads as the adventure Jack London and Jon Krakauer wished they had lived ―     Booklist Starred review

    Readers will gain a new appreciation of these magnificent ruminants through Kantner’s sharply focused eyes. ―     Kirkus Reviews

    Through a series of narratives, author Kantner unveils a life that revolves around the wilds of Northwest Arctic and the twice yearly migration of caribou. It’s about a life of subsistence – a life that had sustained native Alaskans, the Inupiat, for centuries. The hunting of caribou was central to their existence, and consequently there are frequent depictions of hunting in this book. But it is also about changes over the last decades – social, political, technological – which have altered the lifestyles of those who live there. It’s a book filled with wild passion and love of place that will keep you absorbed well into the night. ―     National Outdoor Book Award Judges

    About the Author

    Seth Kantner was born and raised in northern Alaska and has worked as a trapper, wilderness guide, wildlife photographer, gardening teacher, and adjunct professor. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Outside, Orion, and Smithsonian. Kantner is the author of the award-winning novel Ordinary Wolves, memoir Shopping for Porcupine, and collection of essays Swallowed by the Great Land: And Other Dispatches from Alaska’s Frontier. He has been a commercial fisherman in Kotzebue Sound for more than four decades and lives in the Northwest Arctic.

    Product details

    • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B097CLKK7C
    • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mountaineers Books (September 1, 2021)
    • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 1, 2021
    • Language ‏ : ‎ English
    • File size ‏ : ‎ 114392 KB
    • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
    • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
    • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
    • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
    • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
    • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
    • Print length ‏ : ‎ 393 pages
    • Customer Reviews:
      4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 124 ratings

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    Customer reviews

    4.6 out of 5 stars
    4.6 out of 5
    124 global ratings
    Item arrive with crushed corners
    5 Stars
    Item arrive with crushed corners
    The book is excellent! I received it as a gift from my son and it is a fabulous piece of literature, and the photography is excellent! I am now trying to purchase it as a gift. However, the book was shipped in a larger box with a number of things and were not cushioned at all, and the corners are crushed so I have to return it.
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    Top reviews from the United States

    Fixermun
    5.0 out of 5 stars Deep personal knowledge of subject and very well written with brautiful photographs
    Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Read the prologue on amazon. It shows how beautifully this book is written. A pretty complete natural history of these animals and their relationship with the humans that have lived with them. Beautiful photography and heartfelt stories of life on the arctic and living with these animals.
    Helpful
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    Amy
    5.0 out of 5 stars Item arrive with crushed corners
    Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    The book is excellent! I received it as a gift from my son and it is a fabulous piece of literature, and the photography is excellent! I am now trying to purchase it as a gift. However, the book was shipped in a larger box with a number of things and were not cushioned at all, and the corners are crushed so I have to return it.
    Customer image
    Amy
    5.0 out of 5 stars Item arrive with crushed corners
    Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2023
    The book is excellent! I received it as a gift from my son and it is a fabulous piece of literature, and the photography is excellent! I am now trying to purchase it as a gift. However, the book was shipped in a larger box with a number of things and were not cushioned at all, and the corners are crushed so I have to return it.
    Images in this review
    Customer image
    Customer image
    Helpful
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    Jonathan C. Owen
    5.0 out of 5 stars Almost a meditation on the Arctic
    Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    I lived in Alaska’s Arctic for many years. I used to read Seth’s column religiously on Sundays. I’ve since retired Outside. But this book brought me back. The Arctic is a deeply spiritual place. The first person you meet there is yourself. Much of this book is like a meditation, particularly where he focuses on the changing of the seasons in the Arctic. His writing reminds me of Barry Lopez, and that’s the highest of compliments. The Arctic is a complicated place. One cannot go in on a quick tour and understand it. One needs to live a few years there. Observe, soak in the changing of the seasons. It’s the rhythm of life, where time isn’t measured in months or weeks, but in seasons. Most cannot live there for several years, I know. If you’re interested in Alaska’s Arctic, please read this book, along with Barry Lopez’s book, “Arctic Dreams.” Personally, I bought the book in hardcover. Seth’s a phenomenal photographer and the hardcover makes this a coffee table book. But read it, soak in the spirituality of the Arctic. Bravo, Seth, well done.
    4 people found this helpful
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    Kaui
    4.0 out of 5 stars Get ready to want to move to Alaska!
    Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2022
    I picked this book up when it was recommended in an article I read - I think it was related to the Run the Red Rock event in Wyoming, but perhaps not because what does Wyoming have to do with caribou? However I ended up with this book, it was a sold read. The author has a way with words, describing his life on Alaskan tundra as a child, as an adult, with breathtaking majesty. This is a great addition to the "conservationist" genre which covers both fiction (Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy) and non-fiction (this book). I love the evocative language, transporting the reader to the scene but also hopefully creating an emotional response of love, wonder, awe. It's strictly a great thing to feel love for our earth and this book provides this in spades. I definitely recommend.
    Helpful
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    Lee E. Sowers
    5.0 out of 5 stars Alaska then, now and what might be tomorrow.
    Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    A great read. This guy can write. A great look at Alaska through the eyes of two generations.
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    obgraham
    5.0 out of 5 stars Even more than you wanted to know!...
    Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    ...about Caribou, that is! I quite enjoyed this book, and learned a lot more about life in the Arctic than I knew before. Though not Native, the author was raised on the tundra and has a lifetime of experience with subsistence living there. He has great insight into Native culture as well as into the animals.
    The book is essentially about the life of Caribou, told from the point of view of those whose lives depend on them -- the vast majority of whom are the Native People of Alaska.
    Thankfully the climate issue is dealt with fairly quickly, and the latter part is about the influence of government, with its myriad regulations, bureaus, and Outsiders on the people who lived there before them. It's as if we didn't learn a thing from the 17th to 19th century destruction of Indigenous culture in the Americas. but just updated the stupidity.
    There's not holding back here: if you don't like guts, skinning, and parasites, find another book. But this one was well done!
    7 people found this helpful
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    Barb Freeman
    5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly enjoyed!
    Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    Former home, brought back great memories. The spirit of the land and four legged and two legged who live in the interior.
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    SC Johnson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Love for Alaska
    Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    This book reads like poetry and I devoured every word. Seth is a nature lover who experiences climate change first hand.
    Helpful
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