Science & Math
Biological Sciences
![Catherine Raven - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_a_catherine_raven.jpg)
Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship
Instant New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award * 2022 Nautilus Book Awards Gold Winner * Shortlisted for the John Burroughs Medal * Finalist for the Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize * Shortlisted for a Reading the West Book Award
A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Year * 2021 Summer Reading Pick by BUZZFEED * NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW * KIRKUS * TIME MAGAZINE * GOOD MORNING AMERICA * PEOPLE MAGAZINE * THE WASHINGTON POST
"The book everyone will be talking about … full of tenderness and understanding." – The New York Times
An "extraordinary" (Oprah Daily) memoir about the friendship between a solitary woman and a wild fox.
Includes reading group guide and an interview with the author
When Catherine Raven finished her PhD in biology, she built herself a tiny cottage on an isolated plot of land in Montana. She was as emotionally isolated as she was physically, but she viewed the house as a way station, a temporary rest stop where she could gather her nerves and fill out applications for what she hoped would be a real job that would help her fit into society. In the meantime, she taught remotely and led field classes in nearby Yellowstone National Park.
Then one day she realized that a mangy-looking fox was showing up on her property every afternoon at 4:15 p.m. She had never had a regular visitor before. How do you even talk to a fox? She brought out her camping chair, sat as close to him as she dared, and began reading to him from The Little Prince. Her scientific training had taught her not to anthropomorphize animals, yet as she grew to know him, his personality revealed itself and they became friends.
From the fox, Catherine learned the single most important thing about loneliness: we are never alone when we are connected to the natural world. Friends, however, cannot save each other from the uncontained forces of nature.
Fox and I is a poignant and remarkable tale of friendship, growth, and coping with inevitable loss-and of how that loss can be transformed into meaning. It is both a timely tale of solitude and belonging as well as a timeless story of one woman whose immersion in the natural world will change the way we view our surroundings-each tree, weed, flower, stone, or fox.
Winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award * 2022 Nautilus Book Awards Gold Winner * Shortlisted for the John Burroughs Medal * Finalist for the Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize * Shortlisted for a Reading the West Book Award
A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Year * 2021 Summer Reading Pick by BUZZFEED * NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW * KIRKUS * TIME MAGAZINE * GOOD MORNING AMERICA * PEOPLE MAGAZINE * THE WASHINGTON POST
"The book everyone will be talking about … full of tenderness and understanding." – The New York Times
An "extraordinary" (Oprah Daily) memoir about the friendship between a solitary woman and a wild fox.
Includes reading group guide and an interview with the author
When Catherine Raven finished her PhD in biology, she built herself a tiny cottage on an isolated plot of land in Montana. She was as emotionally isolated as she was physically, but she viewed the house as a way station, a temporary rest stop where she could gather her nerves and fill out applications for what she hoped would be a real job that would help her fit into society. In the meantime, she taught remotely and led field classes in nearby Yellowstone National Park.
Then one day she realized that a mangy-looking fox was showing up on her property every afternoon at 4:15 p.m. She had never had a regular visitor before. How do you even talk to a fox? She brought out her camping chair, sat as close to him as she dared, and began reading to him from The Little Prince. Her scientific training had taught her not to anthropomorphize animals, yet as she grew to know him, his personality revealed itself and they became friends.
From the fox, Catherine learned the single most important thing about loneliness: we are never alone when we are connected to the natural world. Friends, however, cannot save each other from the uncontained forces of nature.
Fox and I is a poignant and remarkable tale of friendship, growth, and coping with inevitable loss-and of how that loss can be transformed into meaning. It is both a timely tale of solitude and belonging as well as a timeless story of one woman whose immersion in the natural world will change the way we view our surroundings-each tree, weed, flower, stone, or fox.
Editorial Reviews
"Mysterious and magical."
-Wall Street Journal
"The book everyone will be talking about… [A] real-life friendship that mirrors the one between Saint-Exupéry's Little Prince and his fox, full of tenderness and understanding."
-The New York Times
"Entrancing…. Raven's gorgeous account of her bond with a fox while living in a remote cabin will open readers' eyes to the ways humans connect to the natural world and vice versa. … If there's one book you pick up this summer, make it this one."
-Bethanne Patrick, Washington Post
"What emotional vocabulary can express both the joy and the doubts [Raven] experienced devoting copious time and love to a wild creature? This fanciful, literate, unsentimental and yet deeply felt memoir is her answer. … [Raven is] a superb nature writer. … [T]he experience of journeying alongside her as she lives with Fox and meditates about him is extremely rewarding…Fox and I will appeal to those who despair about human depredation of the natural world and sense climate change as the looming, existential threat to life. But Raven's book isn't a treatise, it isn't a call to arms, it isn't political. Perhaps it is best understood as a plea for understanding. Raven needed Fox: He changed her, made her more comfortable in the world. He showed her that even when padding along under the glorious full moon's light, it's better to have someone at your side."
-Clare McHugh, Washington Post
"In this quiet, charming memoir, Raven recounts her journey to accepting this unusual companion.... Throughout, Raven writes about her environment with wonder and reverence but never formality-it's the easy affection of someone who's long made family of the natural world."
-BuzzFeed News
"Raven's extraordinary memoir is a love song to the animal who miraculously arrives in the front yard of her remote cabin every afternoon to be read passages from The Little Prince. A poetic, revelatory portrait of a biologist's solitary sojourn."
-Oprah Daily
"It's a familiar story arc: human becomes best friends with a wild animal and life lessons are learned. ...
-Wall Street Journal
"The book everyone will be talking about… [A] real-life friendship that mirrors the one between Saint-Exupéry's Little Prince and his fox, full of tenderness and understanding."
-The New York Times
"Entrancing…. Raven's gorgeous account of her bond with a fox while living in a remote cabin will open readers' eyes to the ways humans connect to the natural world and vice versa. … If there's one book you pick up this summer, make it this one."
-Bethanne Patrick, Washington Post
"What emotional vocabulary can express both the joy and the doubts [Raven] experienced devoting copious time and love to a wild creature? This fanciful, literate, unsentimental and yet deeply felt memoir is her answer. … [Raven is] a superb nature writer. … [T]he experience of journeying alongside her as she lives with Fox and meditates about him is extremely rewarding…Fox and I will appeal to those who despair about human depredation of the natural world and sense climate change as the looming, existential threat to life. But Raven's book isn't a treatise, it isn't a call to arms, it isn't political. Perhaps it is best understood as a plea for understanding. Raven needed Fox: He changed her, made her more comfortable in the world. He showed her that even when padding along under the glorious full moon's light, it's better to have someone at your side."
-Clare McHugh, Washington Post
"In this quiet, charming memoir, Raven recounts her journey to accepting this unusual companion.... Throughout, Raven writes about her environment with wonder and reverence but never formality-it's the easy affection of someone who's long made family of the natural world."
-BuzzFeed News
"Raven's extraordinary memoir is a love song to the animal who miraculously arrives in the front yard of her remote cabin every afternoon to be read passages from The Little Prince. A poetic, revelatory portrait of a biologist's solitary sojourn."
-Oprah Daily
"It's a familiar story arc: human becomes best friends with a wild animal and life lessons are learned. ...
Readers Top Reviews
WeagleMiguel Cerv
Like all friendships, common bonds form the basis for this mutual connection between author Raven and a wild fox on her isolated land in central Montana; they both interact easily with nature, are boundlessly curious, wary of most humans, and lack daily company. For Raven, the burgeoning relationship is as rewarding as it is perplexing as she reconciles this unique bond with her scientific training as a biologist -- and her realization that she seems to have formed a deeper connection with a wild fox than with most people. Raven is a wonderfully gifted writer whose descriptive prose often immerses readers in enchanting paragraphs that transport readers to her magical Montana landscape. Consider this evocative passage about a nighttime encounter with Fox’ playful offspring “Riveted, I strained my eyes to watch their undisciplined performance in the moon’s light, and my other senses diminished as if I were dropping slowly underwater. Gulping air, holding my breath, I fell into the night with unfettered foxes swimming all around me.” The pace may not be for everybody; some hikers are destination-focused. Raven is the knowledgeable and eloquent guide you want if you would rather absorb, savor, and reflect on the nuances of nature surrounding you.
N. PokerwinskiWea
A woman, a fox, a remote setting populated with creatures with distinct personalities—Fox & I has all the makings of a fairytale. But despite its fantasy quality, this book is very much a real-life story of a rare friendship between a curious fox and a reclusive woman who knows a lot about nature but may have a thing or two to learn about being a friend. Former national park ranger Catherine Raven writes with exquisite detail about her natural environment and the creatures she shares it with. Her depictions of such animals as magpies and voles are honest, not romanticized, and her description of fox kits in the moonlight, pure poetry. And really, who but such a keen observer of nature would match her interior decorating scheme to the colors of prairie smoke flowers? Or adorn a stairwell ledge with feathers and twigs in mini-vases made from rifle casings? Before meeting “Fox” (who’s never called by any other name), Raven, ever the conscientious scientist, avoids humanizing wild animals. In the course of the book, her understanding shifts to encompass not just data, but also imagination and intuition. Does she become a better scientist in the process? Who can say? A better human being? Undoubtedly.
Don PapeN. Pokerw
This is a remarkable book. I can't think of a book to compare it too it is so unique. Whilst folks have referenced The Little Prince only because the author reads it it does not do justice to what is an equisite, lovely, thoughtful book. Savor it.
MattPaul S. Cross
The author spends a lot of time on her emotional baggage, but does not provide enough of a backstory to fully explain this baggage. We get nothing more than glimpses. We're left with an image of a peculiar person who, for example, laments never owning a television or a credit card. She constantly references her PhD, almost as if desperate to say "I'm not a total dingbat." (People who are confident in their knowledge don't constantly reference their academic degrees.) She seems reticient to put her academic knowledge to good use - yet another quirk. Maybe none of this should matter. However, the author's emotional baggage changes the tone of the story. What should have been a charming story about a woman and a fox ends up reading like "Crazy Cat Woman Makes Friends with a Fox."
MikiAMattPaul S.
I've never lived in high country or in the West but Raven's descriptions are so detailed and vivid that I could almost feel the difference in the air and vegetation around me. As someone who has also had fox friends I appreciate her description of and insight into Fox's behavior and her own.
