Savages

In this impressive, funny and moving work, Joe Kane tells the story of the Huaorani, a tribe living in the deepest part of the Amazonian rain forest in Ecuador. The Huaorani have only in the last generation been exposed to such items as the wristwatch. But the modern world is reaching them quickly; for better or worse--usually worse--they live astride some of Ecuador's richest oilfields. Oil production in the Amazon has opened the forest to colonization and industrialization, often with
alarming results: about 17 million gallons, of raw crude, more than in the Valdez spill in Alaska, were spilled from a Amazon pipeline between 1972 and 1989. Kane, who lived with the Huaorani for months, immaculately reports on the tribes' connections with the old world and its battles with the new one.


PRAISE FOR Savages:

"Kane braves myriad discomforts and dangers (both physical and psychological) to document the destruction wrought by the oil companies and witness various dialogues between the Huaorani and disingenuous government and industry officials.... Kane describes some truly remarkable individuals and relates incidents both comic and tragic in the ongoing and quite crucial global war between people of the forest and people of the dollar."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Savages is every bit as lively and enjoyable as a good picaresque novel, with Kane wonderfully mixing the serious and the absurd."
--Publishers Weekly