The Inner Life of Animals: Love, Grief, and Compassion―Surprising Observations of a Hidden World

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$24.95


Here is a very promising book for naturalists, animal lovers, or anyone who enjoys good animal stories. The Inner Life of Animals only partially fulfills such promise. The author, Peter Wohlleben, is a naturalist and forester who manages a German woodland. Many of the stories in the book are from personal experience, but most are the result of extensive academic research on animal behavior. The book is neither a purely academic study nor a book written for reading enjoyment but rather a hybrid of the two. This crossbreed was not a fortunate choice. The average reader is likely to lose interest in the rather verbose text filled with references to one or another research study related to animals. To be truly scholarly, the author included many superscript numbers referring to the extensive references at the end of the book. However, scholars of animal behavior are unlikely to be interested in the studies Wohlleben cites. The book has no illustrations to break up the text. Included are many, many stories of animal behavior, such as a dog adopting six baby boars, a chick imprinting on the author, and similar stories throughout. Wohlleben’s writing is only fair—the book is not a page-turner (which could be the translator’s fault).


Reviewed By:

Author Peter Wohlleben • Jane Billinghurst, Translator • Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Foreword
Star Count /5
Format Hard
Page Count 277 pages
Publisher Greystone Books
Publish Date 2017-Nov-07
ISBN 9781771643016
Bookshop.org Buy this Book
Issue April 2018
Category Science & Nature
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