“Stunning….The Africa [Matthiessen] evokes is finally timeless, majestic, throbbing with life, indivisible.”—Saturday Review

“Few nature books called 'classic' are as deserving of the appellation as this one, for no one writes about Africa with quite the same insight and enthusiasm as Peter Matthiessen.”—Kirkus Reviews (UK)

In this classic volume, Peter Matthiessen exquisitely combines nature and travel writing to bring East Africa to vivid life. He skillfully and magically portrays the sights, scenes, and people he observed firsthand in several trips over the course of a dozen years: the daily lives of herdsmen and hunter-gatherers; the drama of the predator kills; the hundreds of exotic animals; the breathtaking landscapes; the area's turbulent natural, political, and social histories; the adventures of the field biologists who pursue and investigate the habits of wild creatures; the anthropologists seeking man’s origins throughout the Rift Valley; and the lonely African, poised between the traditional ways and the conflicting demands of Western culture.

Peter Matthiessen has written eight novels, a book of short stories, and, from his career as a naturalist and environmental activist, numerous acclaimed works of nonfiction. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1974. He has won two National Book Awards, including the 2008 award for fiction for his book Shadow Country.