Praise for In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond:
“John Zada is one of those rare writers who conjures spellbinding prose through an acute sense of nature’s significance and the mythologies we all inhabit. A profound debut.”—Robert Twigger, author of White Mountain: A Cultural Adventure through the Himalayas and Red Nile: A Biography of the World’s Greatest River
“In the world of travel writing there are two kinds of author. The first writes from the outside in, at best only scratching the surface of the lands through which they travel. The second kind of author writes in a profound and elegant way, the narrative charged with humility—observed from the inside out. John Zada is an author of the second approach—from the school of master travel writers. His prose is an utter delight, and his observances are shrewd and often extraordinary. But most of all, Zada has the ability to suck readers in deep, so that they’re right there with him on the trail of the Sasquatch. I recommend In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond more highly than any other travel book I have read in years. With time it will become a classic, and Zada will be recognized as the foremost chronicler of what is surely one of the most beguiling preserves in all adventure.”—Tahir Shah, author of In Arabian Nights and The Caliph’s House
“A fascinating and unique account of the Bigfoot phenomenon that is equal parts memoir, psychology, travelogue, cultural commentary and manifesto on nature. Totally gripping and unputdownable. Destined to be a classic of adventure and a standout among the more conventional works on the Sasquatch.”—Jason Webster, author of A Death in Valencia
2019-05-12
Bigfoot lives—maybe, as this X-Files-worthy tale reveals.
Toronto-based journalist Zada, who has written for the Globe & Mail, the CBC, the Toronto Star, and other publications, goes a touch out on a limb to ponder sights seen but not proven: namely, spottings of the Sasquatch, or Bigfoot, a kind of half-human, half-ape that inhabits the ancient woods of the Northwest. Traveling deep into the old-growth forests of British Columbia, he had a look for himself, and it's not too much of a spoiler to say that he adds to the seen/unproven inventory. The fact that no definitive evidence has ever been produced, admits the author, puts the Sasquatch in a category of critter "considered by most people to be no more real than fairies or gnomes." Bigfoot believers, he adds, explain the lack of evidence by the rarity and shyness of the creature, who knows better than to get too close to humans—even though some of the people Zada talks with, locals and visitors, claim to have seen the giants lurking at the edges of forest hamlets. Having been spooked by a sighting in a dark, dense patch of woods, Zada is inclined to believe, though he's a good enough journalist to know that assertion without evidence isn't likely to sway skeptics. As for true believers, well, there are plenty, many of them telling secondhand stories, such as one of a hunter who had Bigfoot in his sights but didn't pull the trigger "because it was too human-looking." Human, yes, and not bear, as so many claim, nor Yeti, maybe, Zada concludes, it's not provably seen because those who are looking for it are just trying too hard. "As soon as you stop trying," he writes, "your odds suddenly change." Believe or don't, the author writes nimbly and well, and his story is modest and evenhanded even as he lets us know just where he stands.
An entertaining, provocative exercise in cryptozoology, best read with a modicum of suspended disbelief.
