Deer Man: Seven Years of Living in the Wild

Summary

Geoffroy Delorme does not fit in the human world. As he gets older, he disappears into the woods at night, drawn to animal life. One night, an encounter with a deer changes his life: from then on, he knows he wants to live among them.

Delorme becomes a creature of the forest. He learns to live without a tent or sleeping bag and forage for food. He blends in with the deer and, slowly, they accept him. He witnesses their births and deaths, courtship and battles, ostracism and friendship over the cycles of their lives. Among the deer, he experiences the beauty, pain, fear, and joy of a life lived as a part of nature.

In his final year in the forest, Delorme meets a woman walking through the trees. He knows he can stay in the forest and die with his friends—or he can leave and speak their truth to a human world.

Deer Man is a moving story of what it's like to be an outsider and how forming connections with the natural world can help us feel less alone. A unique and powerful window into how far one human is willing to go to understand an animal, Deer Man asks us to never take for granted the flora and fauna of our world, and to work for their protection in whatever ways we can.