Elephant Winter - Hardcover

Summoned home from Zimbabwe, Sophie Walker has returned to southern Ontario to nurse her dying mother. Her mother's farm borders on a tacky tourist spot called "Safari, " and across from the kitchen window Sophie sees a herd of the immense Asian elephants playing in the snow. When the elephant keeper invites her to join in caring for the herd, she discovers a new human-animal relationship by recording and playing back the infrasound rumblings, bellows, and trumpets of the elephants. As she and her mother try to decode an Elephant-English dictionary, Sophie slowly uncovers an elephant culture, one which simultaneously honors the herd and the individual with Zen-like acceptance.

With the compassion of Gorillas in the Mist, Kim Echlin's thought-provoking debut evokes the beauty of nature and animals -- and the pain and triumph that comes with human understanding of it.Summoned home from Zimbabwe, Sophie Walker has returned to southern Ontario to nurse her dying mother. Her mother's farm borders on a tacky tourist spot called "Safari, " and across from the kitchen window Sophie sees a herd of the immense Asian elephants playing in the snow. When the elephant keeper invites her to join in caring for the herd, she discovers a new human-animal relationship by recording and playing back the infrasound rumblings, bellows, and trumpets of the elephants. As she and her mother try to decode an Elephant-English dictionary, Sophie slowly uncovers an elephant culture, one which simultaneously honors the herd and the individual with Zen-like acceptance.