This lyrical, compelling work of nature writing traverses the world’s largest temperate rainforest to unearth the enduring legend of the Sasquatch.
Vancouver, BC – Greystone Books has acquired Canadian English Language rights to In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch by Canadian writer and photographer John Zada.
Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest is home to trees as tall as skyscrapers, moss as thick as carpet, sea wolves, and spirit bears. According to the people who live there, another giant is said to dwell in these woods. For centuries, locals have reported encounters with the Sasquatch—a species of hairy bipedal man-ape that allegedly inhabits this pristine wilderness. Driven by his own childhood obsession with the Sasquatch, but equipped with a healthy dose of skepticism, journalist John Zada seeks out the people and stories surrounding this legendary figure. He speaks with a scientist who dedicates his life to researching the Sasquatch. He hikes with a former hunting guide-turned-artist, who takes Zada to the estuary where he first locked eyes with the creature. He talks with local Indigenous people and explores a tangled, verdant landscape to try to see what they have seen.
Zada soon 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 dismiss—one of nature’s last greatest mysteries.
John Zada is a writer and photographer whose work has appeared in the Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, Explore, CBC, Al Jazeera, BBC, Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. He lives in Toronto, Canada.
Greystone Books is a trade book publisher that focuses on high-quality non-fiction. Greystone is based in Vancouver, Canada, with offices in the UK and United States.
Greystone Books is proud to release In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond in July, 2019 with an official publication date of August 2019.
For further information, contact Megan Jones at megan.jones@greystonebooks.com
Advance Praise for In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond:
"I recommend In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond more highly than any other travel book I have read in years. With time it will become a classic, and Zada will be recognized as the foremost chronicler of what is surely one of the most beguiling preserves in all adventure.” —Tahir Shah, author of In Arabian Nights and The Caliph’s House
“John Zada is one of those rare writers who conjures spellbinding prose through an acute sense of nature’s significance and the mythologies we all inhabit. A profound debut.” —Robert Twigger, author of White Mountain: A Cultural Adventure through the Himalayas
“A fascinating and unique account of the Bigfoot phenomenon that is equal parts memoir, psychology, travelogue, cultural commentary and manifesto on nature. Totally gripping and unputdownable” —Jason Webster, author of A Death in Valencia
Image Day 9 – Kikosh Inlet courtesy of Jack Borno, Wikimedia Commons