{"product_id":"wildflower-isbn-9780812979091","title":"Wildflower","description":"With compassion and an unswerving regard for the truth, veteran journalist Mark Seal lays bare the deeply moving, inspirational story of Joan Root, a dedicated environmentalist and Oscar-nominated wildlife filmmaker. He covers her early days in Kenya as a shy young woman with an almost uncanny ability to connect to animals; her whirlwind courtship with the dashing Alan Root, their marriage, and the twenty years of nonstop adventure and passionate romance that followed, both in Africa and around the world; the shattering disintegration of the marriage and partnership; and Joan’s triumphant struggle to reinvent herself as the protector of her lakeshore community’s fragile ecosystem—a struggle that would lead to her tragic death in January 2006. Joan Root dreamed of a bright future for Kenya, a country blessed with unmatched beauty but scarred by decades of colonization and a culture of corruption. She spent her life fighting to make that dream a reality. Her life ended too soon, but “thanks to Seal’s meticulous re-creation, her extraordinary life lives on.” (\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e, four-star review) \u003cbr\u003e“Featuring an extraordinary real-life heroine, exotic settings, a love triangle, and a mysterious death, [Mark] Seal’s riveting portrayal of famous wildlife filmmaker Joan Root is not to be missed.”—\u003ci\u003eGood Housekeeping \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Compelling . . . [a] strange, brutal, sad and beautiful story . . . a vivid and intensely captivating chronicle of fairy-tale lives played out against a once wild and seductive backdrop that is quickly disappearing.”—\u003ci\u003eMinneapolis Star Tribune\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Fascinating . . . [Mark Seal pulls] various elements into a compelling narrative: the personal love story. The physical splendor of Africa and its endangered wildlife.”—\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“More significant than Seal’s investigation into Root’s murder is his portrait of this extraordinary adventurer.”—\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Transports readers into the midst of an incandescent, doomed life.”—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eMark Seal has been a journalist for more than thirty years. Currently a contributing editor at \u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e, he has written for many major magazines and served as a collaborator on almost twenty nonfiction books. Although he has written thousands of stories, Seal says none has struck a chord with readers more than the story of the incredible life and brutal death of Joan Root, which he originally reported in the August 2006 issue of \u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in Aspen, Colorado.PREFACE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe always knew he would come back to her.\u003cbr\u003eHe would climb into his helicopter at first light one Nairobi morning\u003cbr\u003eand rise above the screaming madhouse of the city, tilting west over\u003cbr\u003eEast Africa’s largest slum, and flying out into wonder: out over the\u003cbr\u003eGreat Rift Valley, the cradle of civilization, a three- thousand- mile- long\u003cbr\u003eseam in the earth that stretches from Syria to Mozambique but is at its\u003cbr\u003emost glorious here in Kenya. As the floor of the world dropped away,\u003cbr\u003eopening into endless sky and a breathtaking vista, he would follow this\u003cbr\u003ecorridor straight back to her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere were things she longed to tell him, things only he would understand.\u003cbr\u003eEverything she’d been too shy and self- effacing to say before\u003cbr\u003ewould now come pouring out, just as it had in all of the letters she had\u003cbr\u003ewritten him, letters she never sent:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eA lifetime has passed since we split, and yet some memories of\u003cbr\u003ethings we did together seem [as if they happened] only the other\u003cbr\u003eday. There is so much I would like to say and share with you—now\u003cbr\u003eI know I am not inferior to you.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe waited for him in her blue house beside the lake, which looked\u003cbr\u003eso perfect and placid from the air. But this was merely another extreme\u003cbr\u003ein a country where great beauty coexists with unimaginable brutality,\u003cbr\u003ewhere the border between life and death is the thinnest of lines, where\u003cbr\u003enothing is ever as it seems.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNow in contact with others, I realize how knowledgeable I am\u003cbr\u003eabout the natural world. . . . People respect me nowadays. But the\u003cbr\u003eonly love of my life is one of the few people I cannot communicate\u003cbr\u003ewith, even as a friend.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe could leave all that pain behind as soon as he came back into her\u003cbr\u003elife. Flying over the mountains and dormant volcanoes that form a natural\u003cbr\u003eamphitheater around the lake, he would hover over the emeraldgreen\u003cbr\u003ewater, taking in its wide, verdant, wildlife- infested expanse.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhen you flew over and saw the blue house you were probably\u003cbr\u003ehappy you didn’t live here anymore, but I am really such a different\u003cbr\u003eperson, I hardly know myself. I have written you so many letters in\u003cbr\u003emy head but when I try to write I go to pieces.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe imagined him buzzing the house, as playfully as he always had,\u003cbr\u003ethen touching down on the grass landing strip and stepping out, as if\u003cbr\u003ereturning from only a brief safari instead of half a lifetime. Then at last\u003cbr\u003eshe would impress him with her independence and accomplishments\u003cbr\u003eand show him the abiding endurance of her love.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFinally, he did come back to her, flying in with the dawn on January\u003cbr\u003e13, 2006. It was not, however, as she had dreamed for so long. He\u003cbr\u003ehadn’t come to reunite with the woman who had once been his wife,\u003cbr\u003epartner, and best friend, the woman he’d left to live alone in Africa for\u003cbr\u003esixteen years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe had come to collect her remains.With a new Afterword by the author","brand":"Random House Trade Paperbacks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300809003237,"sku":"NP9780812979091","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780812979091.jpg?v=1767744331","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/wildflower-isbn-9780812979091","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}