The Jaguar's Children: A novel Hardback - 2015

Media reviews

“I have long admired the visceral storytelling and moral complexity of John Vaillant’s brilliant non-fiction about humankind’s tragically ambivalent relationship with the natural world. Now he brings his abundant literary gifts to a debut novel set in a very real borderland in which human beings are themselves treated like animals. The Jaguar’s Children is a beautifully rendered lament for an imperiled culture and the brave lives that would preserve it. You should read it.”
—John Burnham Schwartz, author of Reservation Road and The Commoner
 
“John Vaillant is in the business of writing masterpieces. But this first novel will make his many followers fall over in shock. Vaillant sees the tragedy of human predation on the border for what it is—a real-world horror worthy of Stephen King. This book rushes at you relentless as a nightmare and doesn’t let up until it kicks out the walls. Settle in. You’re going to need a stiff drink. Make it ice water.”
—Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Devil’s Highway and Into the Beautiful North
 
“In The Jaguar’s Children we enter the dangerous borderlands between countries and generations; myth and magic; human community and the vast, infinitely mysterious, wild environment. Here, John Vaillant proves that his heart and imagination are as expansive and fierce as his radiant intellect. Never have I encountered a writer with more energy or compassion.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts, The Voice of the River, Girls in the Grass

“The Jaguar’s Children is devastating. It’s at once a literary mystery, an engrossing tour de force, and a brilliant commentary on humanity’s role in the physical world. The voice that echoes out from that abandoned place Vaillant so masterfully creates won’t leave me.”
—Joseph Boyden, author of The Orenda