"An old-fashioned jungle adventure, one with rare immediacy and depth of feeling for the people and creatures [Rosolie] encounters." --Wall Street Journal

For fans of The Lost City of Z, Walking the Amazon, and Turn Right at Machu Picchu comes naturalist and explorer Paul Rosolie's extraordinary adventure in the uncharted tributaries of the Western Amazon--a tale of discovery that vividly captures the awe, beauty, and isolation of this endangered land and presents an impassioned call to save it.

In the Madre de Dios--Mother of God--region of Peru, where the Amazon River begins its massive flow, the Andean Mountain cloud forests fall into lowland Amazon Rainforest, creating the most biodiversity-rich place on the planet. In January 2006, when he was just a restless eighteen-year-old hungry for adventure, Paul Rosolie embarked on a journey to the west Amazon that would transform his life.

Venturing alone into some of the most inaccessible reaches of the jungle, he encountered giant snakes, floating forests, isolated tribes untouched by outsiders, prowling jaguars, orphaned baby anteaters, poachers in the black market trade in endangered species, and much more. Yet today, the primordial forests of the Madre de Dios are in danger from developers, oil giants, and gold miners eager to exploit its natural resources.

In Mother of God, this explorer and conservationist relives his amazing odyssey exploring the heart of this wildest place on earth. When he began delving deeper in his search for the secret Eden, spending extended periods in isolated solitude, he found things he never imagined could exist. "Alone and miniscule against a titanic landscape I have seen the depths of the Amazon, the guts of the jungle where no men go, Rosolie writes. "But as the legendary explorer Percy Fawcett warned, 'the few remaining unknown places of the world exact a price for their secrets.'"

Illustrated with 16 pages of color photos.

When Paul Rosolie, a restless eighteen-year-old hungry for adventure, embarked on a journey to the western Amazon in 2006, he didn't know that it would transform his life. In the Madre de Dios ("Mother of God") region of Peru, where the Amazon River begins, the cloud forests of the Andes converge with the lowland Amazon rain forest to create the most biodiverse wilderness on the planet.

In a true story of adventure and discovery that spans more than nine years, Rosolie takes us into the most inaccessible reaches of the Amazon. Along the way, he encounters massive snakes, isolated tribes, prowling jaguars, giant anteaters, and much more in the Wild West of the natural world. It is a journey into the last great wilderness that ultimately asks the question of our time: How much longer will these places exist? The primordial depths of the Madre de Dios are in grave danger.

Mother of God is the story of an amazing odyssey into the heart of the wildest place on earth. But as Rosolie delves deeper into the heart of the jungle, he finds things he never imagined could exist. And as the legendary explorer Percy Fawcett warned, "The few remaining unknown places of the world exact a price for their secrets."

Rosolie, Paul

Paul Rosolie is a naturalist and explorer who has specialized in the western Amazon for nearly a decade. Along with running a conservation project called Tamandua Expeditions that uses tourism to support rain forest conservation, Paul conducts research and expeditions that take him all over the world in search of ways to save wildlife and ecosystems. In 2014 he launched the first-ever study of anacondas in Amazonia with the Discovery Channel special Expedition Amazon. Mother of God is his first book.