Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey Into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon

Summary (from the publisher): In the Madre de Dios ("Mother of God") region of Peru, where the Amazon River begins, the cloud forests of the Andes fall into the lowland Amazon rain forest, creating the most biodiverse place on the planet. In January 2006, when he was just a restless eighteen-year-old hungry for adventure, Paul Rosolie embarked on a journey to the western Amazon that would transform his life.

Venturing alone into some of the most inaccessible reaches of the jungle, he encountered giant snakes, floating forests, isolated tribes untouched by outsiders, prowling jaguars, orphaned anteaters, poachers in the black-market trade of endangered species, and much more. Yet today, the primordial forests of the Madre de Dios are in danger from developers, oil giants, and gold miners eager to exploit their natural resources.

In Mother of God, this explorer and conservationist relives his amazing odyssey exploring the heart of the wildest place on earth. When he began delving deeper into his search for the secret Eden, spending extended periods in isolated solitude, he found things he never imagined could exist. "Alone and miniscule against a titanic landscape, I have seen the depths of the Amazon, the guts of the jungle where no men go," Rosolie writes. "But as the legendary explorer Percy Fawcett warned, 'The few remaining unknown places of the world exact a price for their secrets.'"

Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book from HarperCollins.

Paul Rosolie was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York but always struggled with school and dreamed of a day when he could immerse himself in another world, surrounded by animals and nature. At the age of 18 he made his first trip to the Amazon and gradually worked up to making solo trips into the jungle by himself. This book, based on Rosolie's journal entries written in the jungle, demonstrates his passion for his favorite place on earth, and serves as a cry for help to protect the jungle from humans.

Reading this book, it was hard for me to even imagine the world Rosolie describes, because it is so very different from the world most of us live in. In the very first chapter, Rosolie is alone in the jungle in the middle of a storm with large trees crashing to the jungle floor around him: "One hundred feet to my right a branch the size of a mature oak snapped and hit the earth with the force of a car crash. [...] Some of the true giants are so interlaced with vines and strangler tentacles that when they fall, their weight tears down almost an acre of jungle. There is no escape" (6). The area Rosolie explores is so dangerous and so remote "that the only reference to the river in literature is from the early 1900s, in the book Exploration Fawcett, which describes one team of explorers" (33).  It's hard to imagine a terrain so dense and impenetrable that hundreds of years may pass before another human sees the same patch of land.

The situations Rosolie finds himself in over the course of this book are certainly suspenseful. In addition to the dangers of the landscape itself including falling trees and rivers, there is a multitude of animals, many of which are dangerous. These include giant anacondas, giant anteaters, giant otters, jaguars, caiman, ocelots, tapirs, and boars. Rosolie has countless run-ins with these dangerous animals; "Each morning we awoke to see tracks through our campsite; jaguars would come just inches from our sleeping bodies during the night" (123). His tales of all the massive snakes they chased were awe-inspiring. Such as the one that was "as thick as a small cow, and easily well over twenty-five feet long. This was not just a large snake, but the mega-snake of legends" (152). Or that time he emerges from his tent in the middle of the night and found a fourteen foot caiman staring at him. "Looking left and right, I saw the eyes of numerous other large caiman, eleven in total" (249).

Although Rosolie puts himself in danger, he is obviously aware of the risks, since he frequently references people who have disappeared in the jungle and tales of anacondas found with man-sized lumps in their stomachs. He also relays the story of the explorer Fawcett who disappeared in the jungle in 1925. "More than a hundred people who went searching for Fawcett never returned" (201). It was hard reading stories of Rosolie despairing and at wit's end in the jungle, alone, and surrounded by danger.

I really enjoyed this book mostly because of the enthusiasm and obvious passion with which Rosolie writes. He writes in a conversational style, as if he was telling you his experiences personally. I was amused by his asides, such as a description of Nick Gordon, a famous explorer, who Rosolie describes by saying, "The guy was legit" (255). It's obvious that Rosolie is wholeheartedly devoted to the Amazon and preserving it. While Rosolie puts himself in danger on solo trips, with the only goal being to capture animals on film and explore the jungle, he does so knowing the risks. Additionally, his desire to help this place he is so passionate about is raising awareness and bringing knowledge to others, like me, who can read about a place we can only imagine.

Stars: 4