Stories from Forest and Steppe

The Country Life of the Russian Countess

"My breath freezes into hoar frost on my eyelashes and eyebrows … but I dare not move; to stand still is the first rule the huntsman learns, for the game has sharper eyes than man and it may be watching you from behind some bush long before you ever suspect its presence. And then suddenly, right in front of me, as if rising out of the snow, appears a wolf ..." A rare glimpse into a forgotten world, we return in this second volume to the memoirs of Countess Edith Sollohub in which she shares her fascinating hunting adventures. The reader is regaled with tales of days and nights spent in the snowy woods tracking elk; the sights and smells as she wanders alone into a wolf den; and the emotion she feels when coming face to face with a majestic bear, torn between letting it live or die. Each story is unique and beautifully recounted in the same entrancing voice we came to know in The Russian Countess. Poetic, emotive, at times terrifying, Edith draws you into her wild world of hunting, survival, and the friendships she makes along the way.