Anima : A Wild Pastoral

A classic for our times' Monique Roffey

'Haunting, beautiful. Anima will live with me for a long time' Cal Flyn

'A book that mesmerises with its sense of adventure and epic sweep, this is creative non-fiction at its best' Guardian

Over the course of one summer, Kapka Kassabova lives with perhaps the last true pastoralists in Europe. She joins the epic seasonal movement of vast herds of sheep, along with shepherds and dogs, to find pasture in the mountains.

As she becomes attuned to the sacrifices inherent in this isolated existence, Kassabova finds herself drawn deeper into the tangled relationships at the heart of this small community.

Anima is a spellbinding portrayal of the human-animal interdependence in pastoral life, and a plea for a different way of living - one where we might all begin to heal our broken relationship with the natural world.

'An extraordinary work of exploration, both inner and outer. It should be required reading for everyone thinking about our human environment: which is to say, all of us' The Tablet