Book Review: Of Foxes and Men by Sophia Kimmig

 Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Von Füchsen und Menschen.

German fox non-fiction! That's gonna be a first from me. I've reviewed some German books on here once or twice before, but they were usually fiction books aimed at younger audiences. My German is good, but I still am at times a bit hesitant to try more.

Until now. I think I genuinely want to start consuming more German content to learn the language more. I'm already confident in my English and Dutch, obviously, but it cannot hurt to hone my German skills more. 

Anyways, let's have a look.

In this book, Kimmig gives us information about foxes, particularly the urban red foxes of Berlin. She tells us some general information about these animals, before delving into the specific of Berlin's urban foxes and her studies collaring and tracking a various individuals.

This book is definitely a fast read, being not super long, but that didn't mean it was bad. I had a good time reading it, and it made my train ride back from Berlin to the Netherlands (because I actually bought this book in Berlin) a whole lot more pleasant. A interesting and fun read.

I appreciate that Kimmig doesn't just cover foxes in general or Berlin's urban foxes, but instead does both. The first few chapters touch on more general red fox information, such as behavior, subspecies, evolution, foxes in folklore, etc., before the later chapters become more personal as we start to read about the topic at hand the author has a lot of experience with: the urban foxes of Berlin. 

I've read about urban foxes before, but that has so far mostly been in the context of Great Britain, so it's neat to read about this from a different location and a different POV as well. Berlin indeed does boast a large and successful red fox population, and Kimmig gives us quite a bit of information about it, as well as recounts her own personal experiences tracking various Berlin foxes.

The personal touch of those last few chapters I really appreciated, too. It's one thing to learn general fox information, but another to learn from someone's genuine experiences. Kimmig clearly cares a lot about the foxes she tracked over the years, especially with some of them sadly not having a happy ending to their lives, or others eventually vanishing off the radar as their radio collars died down, making them impossible to track further. 

So yeah, a neat book about the subject, which just so happened to coincide with my Berlin trip where I also just happened to see my first wild red fox up close. So yes, I have personally seen one of Berlin's red foxes, and I couldn't be happier about it. This book made the experience even greater by adding a lot more context for me after that encounter.

Rating: 4/5