Title: The Puma Years: A Memoir
Author: Laura Coleman
Publisher: Little A
Year Published: 2021
The Puma Years: A Memoir by Laura Coleman randomly joined my reading space in mid June. Laura Coleman’s memoir: The Puma Years was a Goodreads noteworthy recommendation. I am grateful to Goodreads for highlighting this incredible story.
A young twenty-four-year-old, Laura Coleman finds herself unmoored after she quits her most recent job. Attempting to reorient herself, Laura travels to Bolivia with little more than her backpack. Two months into her three-month tour, Laura becomes weary of Bolivia. Unemphatically, she enters an internet cafe to schedule an early flight home. While eating in the cafe, Laura spots a flyer for a Bolivian animal welfare site.
When Laura arrives at the animal reserve, she naively stumbles upon a new beginning. Mila, a Bolivian woman who oversees the sanctuary, tells Laura
we look over wild animals rescued from the illegal pet trade. Manos, aves, chanchos, tapirs, gatos
Laura’s ears perk up
gatos? I stop her. Cats?
I wonder if there are any dogs too. This cheers me up. I like dogs.
Yet, as Laura looks at her surroundings, all she sees are monkeys and brilliantly colored birds.
Mila continues
I have a puma you can work with.
Confused, Laura thinks, not house cats then?
Laura’s hones in on the word puma. She struggles to comprehend Mila’s offer. Eager to please, Laura smiles then nods her head acquiescing to Mila’s request. Fearful of pumas, Laura secretly hopes a phone will magically appear. She dreams of calling a taxi and heading home.
Laura is assigned to a puma named Wayra. Due to her painful past, Wayra has a temperamental nature. Initially, Laura is terrified of being in Wayra’s presence. Together with volunteers Jane and Oscar, Laura walks Wayra through cleared parcels of the parque. Over time, Laura and Wayra form a precious bond.
Photo courtesy of Mohd Fazlin Mohd Effend Flicker Commons
Laura’s relationship with Wayra reshapes their lives. Both at odds with the world, they give each other strength. Laura learns to trust Wayra. She feels at home in the jungle. Empowered by her love for Wayra, Laura’s life has been transformed. Subsequently, Laura flies back to the United Kingdom to continue her legacy.
While residing in the United Kingdom, Laura pursues art, starts a gallery named ONCA, and composes her first memoir The Puma Years.
Primatologist, Dr. Jane Goodall wrote
you will love this book
on the front cover jacket of The Puma Years. True to Dr. Jane Goodall’s words, I loved Laura Coleman’s memoir The Puma Years.
Set against the vista of over 100 forlorn animals, Laura Coleman narrates one of the best books of the year. Laura’s memoir is written lyrically. Her multifaceted literary work lures readers’ down paths of opposition. In an attempt to protect our ecosystem, Laura combats forest fires, animal cruelty, flooding, and unfathomable living conditions.
Encountering the globe from Laura’s point of view, I notice that her perspective is a bit brighter, sharper, louder, and more defined than mine.
Throughout Laura’s book, I could almost feel the heat of the jungle, hear the high pitched screech of a monkey and capture the shapes between the stars in the night sky. Perhaps Laura’s finely tuned traits reinforce her motivation to nurture the sanctuary.
In her epilogue, Laura credits Ursula K. Le Guin as one of the authors who’s helped Laura process her experience. In Ursula K. Le Guin’s visionary 1986 essay, “The Carrier Bag of Fiction, ”
she talks about how it might be possible to change the way stories are told moving away, perhaps, of the violent power of singular heroes. Towards collaboration and compost, corroboration and connection.
Laura concurs
the parque, for me, is a place where these things come together. Where we “compost” side by side, and where not just people and creatures-whatever their species, whatever their stories, whichever way they are broken-find homes. Where we all bob along together and make connections. Because it’s connections that make the difference, right?
Thankfully, Laura Coleman expands upon her journey in the epilogue of The Puma Years.
I recommend The Puma Years as a great read. Laura Coleman’s memoir is an important highly relevant book. The continuous assault on our planet and our species is a dangerous approach that will continue to wreak havoc upon our lives.
The Proceeds from this book will provide support to Comunidad Inti Wara Yasi’s organization.
