Boris the Bear-Hunter

The forests of northern Europe are vast, cruel, and full of beasts that can kill a man. Boris knows this better than anyone. A peasant with shoulders like oak beams and a reputation built on the bodies of bears he's brought down, he hunts the way some men pray with intensity and reverence. But even the best hunters become the hunted, and when a particularly massive bear turns the chase around, Boris finds himself staring death in the eye among the wild strawberry bushes. A chance encounter with Petka, a stranger with sharp eyes and a ready blade, saves Boris from becoming the bear's final trophy. In gratitude and recognition of something extraordinary in this peasant hunter, Petka invites Boris to join him in Archangel. What begins as a debt of honor becomes a door into a larger world, transforming a humble serf into a figure whose adventures will shape history. Whishaw writes with the visceral punch of a man who knows wilderness and the hearts of those who live by it, capturing both the humor and mortal danger of a hunter's life.