The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers' Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda

(Hardback)

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Far more than an exquisitely rendered account of a quest to track the giant panda...Holts storytelling is powerful and timeless. Brian Murphy, New York Times bestselling author

For lovers of history, nature, and adventure, the stunning true story of Theodore Roosevelts sons and their 1929 Himalayan expedition to prove the existence of the beishung, the panda bear, to the western world, from the New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls.

The Himalayasa snowcapped mountain range that hides treacherous glacier crossings, raiders poised to attack unsuspecting travelers, and air so thin that even seasoned explorers die of oxygen deprivation. Yet among the dangers lies one of the most beautiful and fragile ecosystems in the world.

During the 1920s, dozens of expeditions scoured the Chinese and Tibetan wilderness in search of the panda bear, a beast that many believed did not exist. When the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt sought the bear in 1928, they had little hope of success. Together with a team of scientists and naturalists, they accomplished what a decade of explorers could not, ultimately introducing the panda to the West. In the process, they documented a vanishing world and set off a new era of conservation biology.

Along the way, the Roosevelt expedition faced an incredible series of hardships as they disappeared in a blizzard, were attacked by robbers, overcome by sickness and disease, and lost their food supply in the mountains. The explorers would emerge transformed, although not everyone would survive. Beast in the Clouds brings alive these extraordinary events in a potent nonfiction thriller featuring the indomitable Roosevelt family.

From the soaring beauty of the Tibetan plateau to the somber depths of human struggle, Nathalia Holt brings her signature immersive, evocative (Bookreporter) voice to this astonishing tale of adventure, harrowing defeat, and dazzling success.

Reviews

"'The Beast in the Clouds' is far more than an exquisitely rendered account of a quest to track the giant panda in the bamboo forests of the Tibetan Plateau. Nathalia Holt also takes us on a darker journey of hubris and a misguided sense of destiny by Teddy Roosevelt's sons that brought struggles, blunders and, in the end, moral reckonings. Holt's storytelling is powerful and timeless."
--Brian Murphy, New York Times bestselling author of 81 Days Below Zero: The Incredible Survival Story of a World War II Pilot in Alaska's Frozen Wilderness

Author Bio

Nathalia Holt, PhD, is theNew York Timesbestselling author ofRise of the Rocket Girls,Wise Gals, The Queens of Animation, andCured. She has written for numerous publications includingThe New York Times,The Wall Street Journal,Los Angeles Times,The Atlantic,Slate,Popular Science, PBS, andTime. She is a former fellow at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard University. She lives with her husband and their two daughters in Pacific Grove, California. Find out more at NathaliaHolt.com.