"Sales Pitch"
In 1936, a French veterinarian working abroad in Cambodia sent a young calf of a forest ox to the brand new zoo in Paris. A year later, that animal was recognized as a new species never before seen by scientists. Since its discovery, the kouprey has remained an enigma. We have only had brief glimpses of the animal. In fact, there are only four known photographs of a living kouprey. Today, many believe that the kouprey is extinct. It was last glimpsed in the 1980s and last observed by scientists in the 1950s.
One man has spent his entire career searching for the animal. Dr. Byron MacDonald is a world renowned taxonomist and mammalian conservationist with many discoveries to his name, but he is haunted by the memory of the lost ox. His obsession has driven him, and in his quest he has abandoned everything and everyone that he loves.
Told from the point of view of his last ever grad student, the tale is an introspective look at the role of science and how humans are responsible for the planet. The characters the narrator encounters along his way not only contribute to the search for the kouprey, but also in the search to find himself.
The tale meanders from a failing and dysfunctional zoo in Texas, to a well-known university on the east coast, to the sophisticated museums of Paris, to the final climax in the forests of Cambodia where the shadow of war still lingers.
