I’ve now finished this book, after discussing it with the author here a few weeks ago. It’s a challenging book, more interested in probing a character most of us would immediately dismiss as a nut than trying to entertain the reader. I’m glad I stuck with it. My own explorations of my connection with nature have led me to wonder if the paths I’ve discovered have anything in common with those a shaman would tread. But because there is no place for a shaman in our culture, a true pursuit of that path would entail a complete departure from the human constructs that we accept and depend on to survive, and would appear to all who know me as a descent into madness. This is the story of a man who finds such a path and takes it to the end.