A Tiger Hunt in India

2.  Man-eaters by Brian Phillips.  Published in The Ringer, September 25, 2018

In an exclusive excerpt from his collection ‘Impossible Owls,’ the writer Brian Phillips goes on a quest for tigers in India.

Man-Eaters was awarded a Sidney Award by New York Times columnist, David Brooks, in 2018.  At the end of each year, David Brooks publishes the Sidney Awards in his NYT op-ed column recognizing his favorite long-form essays of the year.

In his 2018 The Sidney Awards Part II column, David Brooks wrote:  "I mentioned in my last column that there were several excellent essays this year on tigers. My favorite is “Man-eaters” in The Ringer, in which Brian Phillips explains: “The arrival of a tiger, it’s true, is often preceded by moments of rising tension, because a tiger’s presence changes the jungle around it, and those changes are easier to detect. Bird calls darken. Small deer call softly to each other. Herds do not run but drift into shapes that suggest some emerging group consciousness of an escape route.”

That NYT column was accompanied by this really great image.


The Museums, Galleries and Archives of Wolverhampton/Getty Images

I purchased Brian Phillip's book Impossible Owls, just so I would have his Man-Eaters essay.  Related to tigers, however, I would also recommend the book No Beast So Fierce by Dane Huckelbridge.  The link includes a brief write-up about the book.

For book links I toggle back and forth from Barnes & Noble and The Literati Bookstore.  Generally, I try to avoid Amazon.








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