Feral Dreams: Mowgli & His Mothers by Stephen Alter

It was the subtitle "Mowgli and his Mother's" of the book Feral Dreams that took my attention when I selected the book. But somehow it's a selection of cover, a herd of elephants, that gave me the impression of a wildlife book. And maybe that was the reason it took me some time to take this book. One more reason for the delay in reading this book was smaller fonts than regular hardcovers, otherwise, a short book of 200 pages usually won't take that much time.

I was under the impression that there might be some retelling of Mowgli Kipling, but no I was proven wrong, and I am glad about it. The book covers the story of a boy who grew up in the jungle, where he was looking after a herd of female elephants. He also roamed in the jungle along with langurs. He was then adopted by a lady and moved to a mi missionary. Throughout the story, you can feel Mowgli's longingness towards the jungle and his efforts in adapting to normal human life.

The book brings different offerings to its readers, catering larger community starting from middle age to all. The author has used relatively easy language, the narration style is simple and straightforward. At times you may get lost in the bounty of the jungle while reading the book, and at times you may find barbarian behavior of selective few humans toward jungle scary and make us believe that we humans are more dangerous than animals.

The book deserves a 3.75 out of 5.