About this item
On the central and north coast of British Columbia, the Great Bear Rainforest is the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world, containing more organic matter than any other terrestrial ecosystem on the planet. The area plays host to a wide range of species, from thousand-year-old western cedars to humpback whales to iconic white Spirit bears.According to local residents, another giant is said to live in these woods. For centuries people have reported encounters with the Sasquatch -- a species of hairy bipedal man-apes said to inhabit the deepest recesses of this pristine wilderness. Driven by his own childhood obsession with the creatures, John Zada decides to seek out the diverse inhabitants of this rugged and far-flung coast, where nearly everyone has a story to tell, from a scientist who dedicated his life to researching the Sasquatch, to members of the area's First Nations, to a former grizzly bear hunter-turned-nature tour guide. With each tale, Zada discovers that his search for the Sasquatch is a quest for something infinitely more complex, cutting across questions of human perception, scientific inquiry, indigenous traditions, the environment, and the power and desire of the human imagination to believe in -- or reject -- something largely unseen. Teeming with gorgeous nature writing and a driving narrative that takes us through the forests and into the valleys of a remote and seldom visited region, In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond sheds light on what our decades-long pursuit of the Sasquatch can tell us about ourselves and invites us to welcome wonder for the unknown back into our lives.
About the Author
John Zada is an author, journalist and photographer based in Toronto, Canada. An interest in adventure travel and remote regions have taken him to some far-flung parts of the world. His first book, 'In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch', was chosen as an Amazon Best Book of 2019. The Washington Post describes it as "a quirky and oddly captivating tale." Steve Donoghue of Open Letters Monthly calls the book "as eloquent and big-hearted as, for instance, Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard."John's work has appeared in such publications as the Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Travel Leisure, BBC, CBC, Al-Jazeera, New York Post, Explore, Maisonneuve, Montecristo, Los Angeles Review of Books, Toque & Canoe and Canadian Business.Before turning his focus to writing, he spent several years working as a documentary filmmaker. He directed such projects as 'Up At Dawn: The Working Children of Egypt', and 'The Bitterest Exile'. More recently, John worked as a producer on 'Canada's Dark Secret' for Al-Jazeera, a film about Canada's residential school system.
