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Description

A Canadian icon gives us his final book, a memoir of the events that shaped thisbeloved writer and activist.

Farley Mowat has been beguiling readers for fifty yearsnow, creating a body of writing that has thrilled two generations, selling literallymillions of copies in the process. In looking back over his accomplishments, we arereminded of his groundbreaking work: He single-handedly began the rehabilitationof the wolf with Never Cry Wolf. He was the first to bring advocacy activism on behalfof the Inuit and their northern lands with People of the Deer and The Desperate People.And his was the first populist voice raised in defense of the environment and ofthe creatures with whom we share our world, the ones he has always called The Others.

Otherwise is a memoir of the years between 1937 and the autumn of 1948 that tellsthe story of the events that forged the writer and activist. His was an innocentchildhood, spent free of normal strictures, and largely in the company of an assortmentof dogs, owls, squirrels, snakes, rabbits, and other wildlife. From this, he wascatapulted into wartime service, as anxious as any other young man of his generationto get to Europe and the fighting. The carnage of the Italian campaign shatteredhis faith in humanity forever, and he returned home unable and unwilling to fit intopost-war Canadian life. Desperate, he accepted a stint on a scientific collectingexpedition to the Barrengrounds. There in the bleak but beautiful landscape he findshis purpose – first with the wolves and then with the indomitable but desperatelystarving Ihalmiut. Out of these experiences come his first pitched battles with anignorant and uncaring federal bureaucracy as he tries to get aid for the famine-strickenInuit. And out of these experiences, too, come his first books.

Otherwise goes tothe heart of who and what Farley Mowat is, a wondrous final achievement from a truetitan.