Book Review: Behind the Trees Stood a Lion by Daan Remmerts de Vries

 

 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 Achter de bomen stond een leeuw.

A non-fiction I saw at the shelves of a bookstore and thought looked interesting! So I borrowed it from the library! Let's have a look.

In this book, the author chronicles his many sightings of wildlife he has seen throughout his life. He describes the journeys he took to see them, some short and close (such as looking for certain bird species in the Netherlands) and others far (such as the lions and tigers of India). He also shows us many pictures taken by him on said journeys, printed in color.

Overall this was a bit of a short read, but I still had a really good time reading it. I love how much the author just is able to get across his love for nature and especially animals by just telling us these passionate stories about them about his encounters in the wild. 

The photos also add another dimension to the chapters, which is much-appreciated. Honestly, most of his photos aren't even of that great in quality (meaning composition, slight blurs, graininess, animals being partially obscured by elements such as trees), but just the fact that you know that these were taken in the wild in situ, rather than being a picture perfect portrait of a lion taken at the zoo just makes them feel more "real". And they really do add to Remmerts de Vries' stories of his many journeys he took. So they're a nice bonus.

While honestly I don't consider this book to be that grand or epic, I do love it for what it is. Just an author putting all of his love for nature, wildlife, traveling and photography in these pages. He absolutely manages to show his passion here and I honestly just wish the book was longer, I'd easily get lost in another 100 or so pages of this. But I also understand if his experiences (so far) with seeing these animals end. Maybe he'll write another book of future experiences like this in the future, who knows.

Rating: 4/5