“An extraordinary book…His vivid writing immerses you in his adventures as he explores an ancient pristine forest where no white man has been, where he encounters amazing creatures, and experiences the relentless power of untamed nature…There are parts that will haunt you, scenes you will never forget.” — Jane Goodall

“Rosolie’s solo adventures in the heart of the �鶹�� jungle, up close and personal with giant anacondas and jaguars, are gripping. And his dedication to preserving one of the earth’s last wildernesses is where he really sets himself apart. Mother of God is an awe-inspiring read.” — Bear Grylls

“A great adventure with a great and enduring point: we simply must protect these last, vast slices of the planet that still work the way they’re supposed to.” — Bill McKibben

“Thanks to fastidious journal-keeping that preserved a wealth of detail and emotion, Rosolie delivers an old-fashioned jungle adventure, one with rare immediacy and depth of feeling for the people and creatures he encounters.” — Wall Street Journal

“Paul Rosolie’s Mother of God is more than a thrilling adventure tale, it’s an old-fashioned boy-meets-jungle love story. Be prepared to fall for it.” — Mark Adams, author of Turn Right at Machu Pichu

“Rosolie is a gripping storyteller. . . . His enthusiasm for the wilderness and his ability to convey it poetically makes him an exceedingly persuasive advocate for conserving what’s left of the natural world.” — BookPage

“A gripping adventure story filled with plenty of adrenaline-filled encounters with massive snakes, intimidating jaguars and other creatures. . . . A vividly written narrative of an amazingly diverse world still to be explored, whose destruction, as Rosolie wisely notes, would be a devastating loss for humanity.” — Kirkus

“A rousing eco-adventure. . . . This is old-school nature writing, unabashedly romantic and free of alienation. . . . Rosolie’s powers of description are so vivid and engrossing that readers will be swept along in his passion.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Rosolie writes with intrepid curiosity and a passion for ecological preservation.” — Booklist

“A sobering account of an ecosystem hanging in the balance. . . . An insightful history of the region. . . . Entertaining and revelatory.” — Wichita Eagle

When Paul Rosolie, a restless eighteen-year-old hungry for adventure, embarked on a journey to the western �鶹�� in 2006, he didn't know that it would transform his life. In the Madre de Dios ("Mother of God") region of Peru, where the �鶹�� River begins, the cloud forests of the Andes converge with the lowland �鶹�� rain forest to create the most biodiverse wilderness on the planet.

In a true story of adventure and discovery that spans more than nine years, Rosolie takes us into the most inaccessible reaches of the �鶹��. Along the way, he encounters massive snakes, isolated tribes, prowling jaguars, giant anteaters, and much more in the Wild West of the natural world. It is a journey into the last great wilderness that ultimately asks the question of our time: How much longer will these places exist? The primordial depths of the Madre de Dios are in grave danger.

Mother of God is the story of an amazing odyssey into the heart of the wildest place on earth. But as Rosolie delves deeper into the heart of the jungle, he finds things he never imagined could exist. And as the legendary explorer Percy Fawcett warned, "The few remaining unknown places of the world exact a price for their secrets."