Wildflower is a compelling work of narrative nonfiction in which
the shocking death of a dedicated environmentalist becomes a
broader story of a beautiful, breathtaking country in peril.
In January 2006, Joan Root, a sixty-nine-year-old naturalist,
Oscar-nominated wildlife filmmaker, and staunch conservationist,
was murdered by two masked men armed with an AK-47 shortly after
midnight in her bedroom on the shore of Kenya's beautiful Lake
Naivasha. Was it a random robbery gone bad, as the local police
seemed to think, or was it a cold-blooded contract killing carried
out at the behest of enemies Root had made in her efforts to
protect Kenya's wildlife? Veteran journalist Mark Seal set out to
investigate this gripping real-life murder mystery-and instead
found an unforgettable story not only of a tragic death but of the
remarkable life that preceded it.
With compassion and an unswerving regard for the truth, Seal lays
bare the deeply moving, inspirational history of Joan Root,
covering her early days in Kenya as a shy young woman with an
almost uncanny ability to connect to animals; her whirlwind
courtship with the dashing Alan Root, their marriage, and the
twenty years of nonstop adventure, passionate romance, and
groundbreaking wildlife filmmaking that followed, both in Africa
and around the world; the shattering disintegration of the marriage
and partnership; and Joan's triumphant struggle to reinvent herself
as the protector of her lakeshore community's fragile ecosystem-a
struggle that would lead to her death.
Wildflower is also the story of Kenya itself. A country blessed
with unmatched beauty that is one of the last repositories of rare
wildlife on the African continent, Kenya has also been scarred by
decades of colonization and a culture of corruption fueled by the
frequently competing agendas of conservationists and business
interests. Joan Root dreamed of a bright future for Kenya and spent
her life fighting with quiet heroism and courage to make that dream
a reality. Her life ended too soon, but her legacy lives on.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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