This book is told in alternating POVs; the hunter and a cougar who is referred to as the old woman as a result of a community legend. This is a sort of coming of age story about both characters. The cougar's chapters are a bit repetitive as she finds shelter, defends herself, hunts for food, hides from other predators (including those humans), and cares for her cubs. We grow with the hunter from a young boy to an old man and come to understand that his hunt for the cougar turns into a bit of an obsession. The alternating chapters are pretty cool since you understand that they are both doing this dance for a long time of just missing each other, until the explosive interaction. I think the writing of this book is very well done and the point of view from the cougar is an interesting take. I do find that the cougar seems a bit more humanized than I think a real animal would be, which I guess leads into the legend of the cougar and the old woman. I think there is also some commentary being made about hunting in general and the relationship of man and animal. I felt like the latter 1/3 of the book had much more of a punch that I was hoping for earlier in the book. And we got a lot more chapters of the hunter when he was younger and then it speed up to fast when he was older, I wish that was paced a little bit different. All in all, I still think this was a good debut and I will continue to look out for future works from Pamela Korgemagi.

Thank you to NetGalley and House of Anansi Press for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the premise of the cougar being a major character--it was my reason for requesting the book. I was disappointed that it didn't work for me; the descriptions felt wooden instead of taking me into the wild.

i thought this was a interesting take on the scifi and fantasy genre, I enjoyed that it wasn't what I expected. It was so well done and I enjoyed reading this.

The Hunter and the Old Woman opens with a powerful scene, showing readers immediately that this will be a story highlighting the natural order of life, with episodes both brutal and beautiful. A highly skilled omniscient point of view minimizes the difference between humans and other animals, and there is much of the archetypal throughout, especially in the journey undertaken by one of the title characters in the final section. Surrealism or magic realism is also incorporated at opportune locations.

The descriptions throughout are lush and detailed, and the pacing is deliberate and methodical. Both of these choices have moments of deep impact and sections in which they appear to bog down. A contemplative approach will be much rewarded.

A concern: as the work progressed, I found myself bothered by what seemed excessive anthropomorphism. Having wild animals thinking as humans and experiencing human emotions weakens an otherwise very strong offering.

Thank you to Pamela Korgemagi, Anansi Press, and NetGalley for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

The “Old Woman” lives in the wild, searching for food, raising her cubs, and avoiding the two-legged creatures who come into her territory. But she is more than an animal — she is a mythic creature who haunts the lives and the dreams of men. Joseph Brandt has been captivated by the mountain lion’s legend since childhood, and one day he steps into the forest to seek her out. A classic in the making, The Hunter and the Old Woman is a mesmerizing portrait of two animals united by a shared destiny.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. The cover is stunning. There are some parts that for me just a big NO. Some parts are disturbing so please beware!

“...even the best-made boots would not last forever. All things collapsed, all things disintegrated.”

In The Hunter and the Old Woman we first meet the Cougar (as she is called) as she makes her way through life, hunting, mating, being hunted, and raising cubs. The book then shifts attention to Joseph, a young boy growing up in a small community somewhere, we assume, in rural North America in the early twentieth century. From there, chapters alternate between the two as life goes on, the Cougar becomes a legend known as “the Old Woman”, and Joseph grows up with an obsession for hunting her. On a collision course, eventually, they finally meet.

The Hunter and the Old Woman explores the blurry line between human animals and non-human animals, between what is wild and what is “civilized”. We, after all, are animals too. It considers the biological necessity of animals’ hunting in comparison to the human motivations for hunting. As Joseph grows up and the town grows up around him, the book also asks whether “progress” has really been progress after all.

For much of the book, I found the language quite beautiful, direct and unadorned but yet also focused almost microscopically on details, like a nature photograph where everything is in crisp focus (Ansel Adams’s work, for example). This level of detail can be frustrating as we’re often used to reading thinking that the details will be in service of the plot in some way. But life isn’t like that. And so perhaps, this book isn’t either.

As I read, I couldn’t help making connections to other books. The Cougar reminded me of the cougar in Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks, Newburyport and she is written in a similar style: action and reaction, awareness and directness. And, though in my non-fiction I can’t abide anthropomorphism, in fiction it doesn’t bother me, and Korgemagi applies it fairly lightly, though increasingly, as the narrative progresses. Do cougars dream? This Cougar does.

In the chapters about Joseph, I was reminded of last year’s Writers’ Trust winner Ridgerunner by Gil Adamson. Set in a similar time and environment, focused on a boy whose mother has passed, it too looks at life lived in deep connection with the wilderness.

Lastly, I couldn’t help remembering Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea which I read in high school over forty years ago. My memories of it are dim and very broad, but the similarities in title and a narrative focused on human and animal opponents couldn’t help but evoke the connection.

While, in the end, I enjoyed The Hunter and the Old Woman, there were times that I got a bit bogged down, that I wished it would go faster, that some of the detail could be dispensed with. The detail does serve to immerse us in each character’s environment so that we can get inside their heads, as it were, and so I wonder if my desire to edit it would change the overall feeling of the book. I’ll be interested to read other reviews of it.

Thank you to House of Anansi and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Anansi Press for the eARC!

I was very much drawn in by the premise, a story told from the POV of a predator animal and the human hunter. It's a relationship as old as time and seemed like it would be a take on the story that would be wholly unique.

Beautiful writing and interesting concept with an execution that fell just a bit flat for me. While I was invested in the sort-of-but-not-quite anthropomorphizing of our cougar as we experience all too human emotions through birth, life, and deaths, I was not very invested in the Hunter. The early part of his story pulled me in and then it became quite repetitive, coupled with a bit of repetition from the cougar's POV (which is understandable, not much will change in her day-to-day) it kind of felt like the story was a bit longer than it needed to be.

Would love to see what other ideas and books come from this author though as the premise was absolutely a hook!

I found the first half of the book really interesting. The descriptions of the cougar's life and her interactions with other animals and learning to survive and raise her cubs was fascinating to me. I didn't enjoy the Hunter's point of view nearly enough. Perhaps that was due to my love of cats of all sizes.

While the last half of the book was a bit of a slog, I think the author shows a lot of potential. I will be looking for more of her work in the future.

This was interesting, and I can honestly say I have never read a book quite like this before. As someone who is intrigued by nature, survival, and primality, this book really hit those marks for me. This book did a really spectacular job of showing the life of a wild animal, a mother, in a way that makes it feel drenched in humanity. Even though the Cougar was just an animal, it was hard not to root for her and feel moved by her failures and successes.

I really enjoyed the first half of this book. The character of Old Woman was fascinating, and I enjoyed seeing the world through her eyes. Joseph's early story was also interesting, although his obsession with the panther was a bit disturbing.

At times the reptition got to be a bit much. There were too many scenes of her hunting and too many of him obsessing about her, and then too much of the blow-by-blow details of his quest into the forest. Overall, however, the book kept my attention at the beginning.

**Spoiler Alert**


The last part of the book was completely and utterly disappointing. We become invested in this cat, and then he goes and kills her. This magnificent creature dies because Joseph has an inexplicable desire to destroy her. When he started off into the forest it seemed like he wanted to see her, maybe even live close to her, but not to kill her as he had fantisized about for so many years. Her death was pointless. She was this great creature struck down by a naked, hallucinating madman.

The last part, where Joseph dreams of her killing him and we learn that he has died, was expected and formulaic. Frankly, who cares that he gave himself to her in his dream or that it led to his actual death. At that point, I couldn't have cared less about Joseph.

The book tries very hard to philosophical and thought-provoking, but it falls very short. I feel like I wasted several hours reading a book that had no point. I would not recommend it..

Pamela Korgemagi has given readers a riveting portrait of a fascinating primary character. The old woman is a vividly portrayed cougar living her life from cub to old age in the wild. In a near documentary style we are told her story of birth, death, fear and satisfaction without an ounce of anthropomorphizing. I would give the first half of the book 5 stars . But as the hunter joins her tale things fall apart; the centre cannot hold - to quote Yeats. He is simply not as interesting as she is. He is drawn to her but he means nothing to him. Worth reading for her story alone.

This book wasn't for me. I read 1/3 of the book and just couldn't get into it. I was really interested in the description but the description didn't line up with the book for me. I felt like I was reading a book version of a Disney movie. The cougar character felt really flat, and I just couldn't get into it.

I'm not sure what to make of this book, a story mostly about a cougar--known as Cougar--whose life progresses as I would expect many cougars' lives to progress; and a boy who grows to become obsessed with the cougar. The writing is fine, but I didn't find this to be very engaging or compelling.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This was a “did not finish” for me. The description was great, and I was very intrigued. For me, I have to be hooked from the start. The intro didn’t do it for me. The transitions in the first chapter weren’t smooth. I gave it up shortly after.
I’ll try to pick it up again later because I feel the storyline is unique.

I loved this book so much! It was the first book I have read by this author and I can't wait to read more! The characters and their story stick with you long after you finish the book.

The characters that are animals are described in third person, and hint at communication rather then there being a direct - he said she said, which goes quite a long way to avoid anthropomorphizing the animals while still keeping them sympathetic. I’m a fan of warrior cats, so I really loved this book. This book is beautiful and well written. However, unless you are used to reading from animal POV’s or interested in it - you may not connect with this novel. I on the other hand ate it up!

It was so well written from the cougar’s POV, and conveyed her well. Everything wrapped up nicely. It starts with a memorable scene of her losing her Cubs. The juxtaposition helps create the authors point.

I want to sincerely thank the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this great book!

In some ways the blurb was better than the book. The tale is OK, and told in a good way. It just didn't hold my attention, I'm disappointed to say. This author has potential, and I hope she keeps writing.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

This summary of this book sounded like it was going to be a great read! However, at least for me, that wasn't the case. It states that these two charachters are intertwined, but the first half of the book is just about the Cougar. Joesph ends up feeling like a background character to me, which makes him feel less important. I also found the chapters to be very repetitive where the Cougar was involved, same things each time. I think that when the two characters finally met, and what happened, was over too quickly. I feel like therr should have been more for the buildup that was given throughout the book.
I wish the author the best of luck and nothing but the best in the future and for future works as well!

This was an interesting tale – it’s different than what I usually read, and I generally like different. I was drawn to this story based on the blurb, that it was about a cougar (The Old Woman) and a man named Joseph Brandt who, enchanted by the myths surrounding her, goes into the forest to seek her out.

The majority of the book is dedicated solely to the Old Woman, starting from her youth and describing her experiences, growing, hunting, and learning about her environment and how to successfully raise her own cubs. The first ten chapters read very much like a nature documentary, with The Cougar’s actions and intents being described and dramatized only so far as to make her relatable to her human audience, without anthropomorphizing her too much. I enjoyed it in much the same way as I do such documentaries. I am fascinated and repulsed in equal measure by the manner of intelligence and lack of empathy that is required to live as a predator, whose day-to-day way of life is sustained not just by breath, but by the shedding of blood without regard to old or young (or even species, at times), only to advantage or disadvantage.

Then we are introduced to Joseph, likewise in his youth, and follow his journey and obsession to the inevitable encounter with The Cougar. I wasn’t sure what to make of him, to be honest. In most respects, he was a completely average boy… with the exception of his obsession with the cougar that honestly crossed the threshold into madness, in my opinion.

The Cougar’s world was richly detailed and coloured by interactions with other cougars, such as her romance with the Marauder, her flight from the Harbinger, her vexing relationship with the Neighbor, and of course the unique relationships she develops with her cubs. All of these influence and shape her, so that she was more the developing person, and Joseph was more the solitary wild animal, oddly enough. I wonder if this was the author’s intended purpose, for at the start Joseph is “The Hunter”, so we may deem him a predator, and the Cougar is “The Old Woman”, so that we may see her as a person.

I liked the better half of this book; the development of the Cougar and each litter of cubs she either failed or succeeded in raising and the lessons she learned were fascinating. These were memorable adventures. I hoped for her successes and grieved her failures. She became more human-like, and not so, as the story progressed and I was exposed to her memories, feelings, and dreams. However, at about halfway through the tale, I started to feel kind of lost in what the point of it all was. The deeper we get into the story, the older both the Cougar and Joseph become, and it seemed to me that the stakes were falling rather than rising. Joseph exists as a shadow in the periphery of the Cougar’s story, for the most part. His development as a character is void of love and loss and lessons learned, for he is solitary and the only meaningful relationship explored is with his father, to a degree. Personally, I felt we could have done without his side of the story altogether and been no worse for the wear.

Ultimately, with the experiences and expectations I brought into my read of The Hunter and the Old Woman, it seemed to me like a frontier telling of Moby Dick, if the majority of the book had been from the Whale’s perspective and Ahab’s obsession was driven only by a fascination for the creature instead of revenge. I would be happy to hear the perspectives of others and what they got out of this book. I recommend it for readers who are fascinated by the secret lives of wild animals and nature, who might not necessarily need a strong human connection to the tale.