Chai, Chat With Books: The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony

Welcome back to our book column, where over a cup of chai we talk about the books worth your weekend. This time we picked up Lawrence Anthony's The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild (2009), the memoir of a businessman who became a conservationist and found himself raising a herd of elephants nobody else wanted.

Anthony ran the Thula Thula private game reserve in Zululand, South Africa. When a small "rogue" herd of elephants was offered to him, everyone warned him against it: the herd kept breaking out of enclosures, and rogue elephants are usually shot. He took them anyway, and then did something unusual for a man with no animal-training background: he talked to them. Over weeks of standing alone in the bush with the herd, he learned to read their moods and calm them with his voice, and two leading females, the matriarch Nana and the hot-tempered Frankie, began to trust him.

What makes this book worth the chai

This is not really a book about elephants, though there are plenty of them. It is a book about listening. Anthony's big realization was that the herd did not need taming; it needed to be understood. One of the most touching passages in the book describes him standing near Nana, the giant matriarch, and finally understanding that she simply wanted her presence acknowledged. That small act of recognition sealed their bond.

The book is also a window into conservation in Africa: the land claims, the poachers, the tribal politics, and the constant pressure of keeping a reserve alive. Anthony writes about it all plainly, without romanticizing the difficulty.

Why we reached for it in 2012

Lawrence Anthony died in March 2012, just months before this column ran. In the days after his death, reports circulated around the world that the herd he had rescued walked for some 12 hours across Zululand to his home, stood vigil there for two days, and then returned to the reserve. Read what you will into the story, but it is hard to finish the book without finding it believable.

Should you read it?

Yes, if you want a memoir that is equal parts adventure and tenderness, and if you have ever wondered what elephants actually feel. Pair it with a second cup of chai: the chapters are short, the writing is conversational, and the herd is hard to forget.

FAQ

Who was Lawrence Anthony? A South African businessman turned conservationist (1950-2012) who founded the Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand and wrote about his life with its elephants.

What does Thula Thula mean? The name comes from Zulu. The reserve was Anthony's private conservation project, run as a model for letting wildlife live as close to natural conditions as possible.

Did the elephants really walk to his funeral? That is what widely circulated reports said after his death in March 2012: the herd he had rescued traveled to his homestead and stayed for two days. Anthony's family stood by the account.

What else did Anthony write? He also wrote Babylon's Ark (2007), about his rescue of the Baghdad Zoo during the Iraq war, and The Last Rhinos (2012), published after his death.

The takeaway

The best nonfiction leaves you changed in one small way. This one changes how you look at eye contact: with elephants, with pets, and probably with people too.