Its December 1997 & a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote Russian village. The tiger isnt just killing people its annihilating them & a team of men & their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. As the trackers sift through the gruesome remains of the victims they discover that these attacks arent random: the tiger is apparently engaged in a vendetta. Injured starving & extremely dangerous the tiger must be found before it strikes again. As he re-creates these extraordinary events John Vaillant gives us an unforgettable portrait of this spectacularly beautiful & mysterious region. We meet the native tribes who for centuries have worshipped & lived alongside tigers even sharing their kills with them. We witness the arrival of Russian settlers in the nineteenth & early twentieth centuries soldiers & hunters who greatly diminished the tiger populations. & we come to know their descendants who crushed by poverty have turned to poaching & further upset the natural balance of the region. Beautifully written & deeply informative The Tiger circles around three main characters: Vladimir Markov a poacher killed by the tiger; Yuri Trush the lead tracker; & the tiger himself. It is an absolutely gripping tale of man & nature that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the taiga.