The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Book Cover for: Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch, Dan O'Brien

Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch

Dan O'Brien

For twenty years Dan O'Brien struggled to make ends meet on his cattle ranch in South Dakota. But when a neighbor invited him to lend a hand at the annual buffalo roundup, O'Brien was inspired to convert his own ranch, the Broken Heart, to buffalo. Starting with thirteen calves, "short-necked, golden balls of wool," O'Brien embarked on a journey that returned buffalo to his land for the first time in more than a century and a half.

Buffalo for the Broken Heart is at once a tender account of the buffaloes' first seasons on the ranch and an engaging lesson in wildlife ecology. Whether he's describing the grazing pattern of the buffalo, the thrill of watching a falcon home in on its prey, or the comical spectacle of a buffalo bull wallowing in the mud, O'Brien combines a novelist's eye for detail with a naturalist's understanding to create an enriching, entertaining narrative.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Random House Trade
  • Publish Date: Oct 8th, 2002
  • Pages: 272
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.02in - 5.30in - 0.60in - 0.45lb
  • EAN: 9780375761393
  • Categories: Animals - MammalsAgriculture - Animal HusbandryAnimals - Wildlife

More books to explore

Book Cover for: The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship with Our Wild Neighbors, Erika Howsare
Book Cover for: Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America, Leila Philip
Book Cover for: Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America, Leila Philip
Book Cover for: Wild Horses of the West: History and Politics of America's Mustangs, J. Edward De Steiguer
Book Cover for: The Hidden World of the Fox, Adele Brand
Book Cover for: How to Be Animal: A New History of What It Means to Be Human, Melanie Challenger
Book Cover for: How to Love Animals: In a Human-Shaped World, Henry Mance
Book Cover for: Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America, Dan Flores
Book Cover for: Eating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of the Wild, Ellen Meloy
Book Cover for: The Natural History of Tassel-Eared Squirrels, Sylvester Allred
Book Cover for: Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace, Carl Safina
Book Cover for: The Secret Life of Cows, Rosamund Young
Book Cover for: Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-Luck Jay, Julie Zickefoose
Book Cover for: Do Unto Animals: A Friendly Guide to How Animals Live, and How We Can Make Their Lives Better, Tracey Stewart
Book Cover for: National Wildlife Federation(r) Attracting Birds, Butterflies, and Other Backyard Wildlife, Expanded Second Edition, David Mizejewski

About the Author

Dan O'Brien, a writer and buffalo rancher, is the author of numerous books of fiction and nonfiction about the West. He has worked as an endangered-species biologist and an English teacher. He lives in Whitewood, South Dakota.

More books by Dan O'Brien

Book Cover for: Great Plains Bison, Dan O'Brien
Book Cover for: Wild Idea: Buffalo and Family in a Difficult Land, Dan O'Brien
Book Cover for: The Contract Surgeon, Dan O'Brien
Book Cover for: From Scarsdale: A Childhood, Dan O'Brien
Book Cover for: Our Cancers: Poems, Dan O'Brien
Book Cover for: The Indian Agent, Dan O'Brien
Book Cover for: The Body of an American, Dan O'Brien
Book Cover for: Scarsdale, Dan O'Brien
Book Cover for: Brendan Prairie, Dan O'Brien
Book Cover for: Stolen Horses, Dan O'Brien
Book Cover for: Equinox: Life, Love, and Birds of Prey, Dan O'Brien
Book Cover for: Fine Meshwork: Philip Roth, Edna O'Brien, and Jewish-Irish Literature, Dan O'Brien
Book Cover for: Key West, Dan O'Brien
Book Cover for: How To Cut Gems, Dan O'Brien
Book Cover for: A Story That Happens: On Playwriting, Childhood, & Other Traumas, Dan O'Brien

Praise for this book

"[Dan O'Brien] by God can tell a story....This is the book you need to read next."
--Bill McKibben, The Boston Globe

"A deeply felt story of life on the Great Plains that strays through time and history, touching again and again on the two great themes of the place--rapture and ruin--and finds its way finally to Dan O'Brien's patient heart."
--Pete Dexter

"This is a bold, brave, and beautifully written book that should be required reading for every cattleman and beef eater in America."
--Outside

"Dan O'Brien's memoir is a poignant portrayal of our link to the land, and to each other. As personal as a confession and as sweeping as the South Dakota sky, Buffalo for the Broken Heart will leave you entertained, moved, and changed."
--Tom Daschle, majority leader, United States Senate