Reviews

“The Last of the Tribe is ‘Avatar’ for grown-ups, a tribe-in-peril-story with real people, complicated motives, and every bit of subtlety and nuance left out of James Cameron's cliched script. Reel's tale is expertly told: perfectly timed, thoroughly researched and descriptively written. Back stories, personal histories, character development and political context are deftly woven into the narrative, and each departure from the quest feels appropriate at the time.”

    – The San Francisco Chronicle

“The fate of the Amazon rainforest is one that concerns us all. Yet as American journalist Monte Reel suggests in this excellent book, the closer you get to the problem, the harder it is to see your way clearly.... Reel teases out the paradoxes -- and high drama -- of anthropology in action. 

    -- The Financial Times

“Gripping... [Reel] is good with context – the section on official Brazilian policy toward indigenous people is powerful and sad – but he’s best when he’s indulging in good old-fashioned adventure writing: Arrows fly, poisonous snakes writer through the undergrowth, and sinister ranchers lord over the boomtowns of Brazil’s Wild West. The real star here turns out to be the Amazon itself, a place thick with ‘irrepressible’ flora and a ‘gaudy display’ of fauna – a place, in short, that is ‘neither paradise nor perdition.’”

    – The Washington Post

 

“Fascinating.... The story Reel tells is as compelling as any featuring Indiana Jones.... Monte Reel makes this story come alive as he shows people caught in the middle of titanic forces that are changing Brazil, a nation forced to make tough choices between tapping its boundless natural resources to fuel economic growth and the preservation of its natural and historic heritage.”

    -- The Daily Beast: “Hot Reads”

“[The story] is engrossing. Because Reel rightly tells it like a thriller, you won't find any spoilers here about how the search ends. A big part of The Last of the Tribe is the hunt itself, and taking the trek with the Brazilian explorers — and Reel — is well worth your time.”

    – The St. Louis Post Dispatch

“Reel thrills with a writing style that strikes a delicate balance between high adventure and exhaustively researched historical narrative.”

    -- The Santa Fe New Mexican

“An ongoing battle over one man’s fate that also grew to touch on the future of Amazonia, and the relentless encroachment of modernity on wild places and wild humans. It is an epic quest, all right, but also a strangely unsettling one... By the end of the book, neither Reel nor dos Santos nor the reader can feel anything but admiration for him.”

    – Macleans

“Monte Reel gets right to the heart of the dilemma facing modern-day Brazil as its rush to develop the vast Amazon rain forest rapidly collides with the last vestiges of cultures whose way of life has changed little since the Stone Age. The Last of the Tribe does an excellent job of placing the reader in the heart of the Amazon as the FUNAI agents struggle with jungle thicket and the equally dense government bureaucracy as they try to protect the man they have dubbed the ‘Indian of the Hole.’”

    – The Associated Press

“Whizzing arrows, devious plots, heartbreak and mystery – it’s amazing that amidst all this intrigue and adventure, Monte Reel’s main purpose in this remarkable tale is to chart the science behind an event we may never witness again: the discovery of a last survivor of a lost tribe. Reel masterfully describes the peril and moral dilemmas that unfold when a team devoted to protecting indigenous tribes stumbles upon a tribesman who, armed with five-foot arrows and near-invisibility, would rather protect himself. You won’t find anthropology this enthralling without a bullwhip and a fedora.”

        – Christopher McDougall, author of the New York Times bestseller, Born to Run

“Reel smoothly translates the complexities of the Brazilian frontier into an adventure narrative, without slighting his material. While the dramas of the rain forest and obscure Native American groups may seem distant to New York and Los Angeles, Reel demonstrates how the life and death of a lone Indian in Rondonia have consequences for the entire world.”

   

        -- Publishers Weekly

“Monte Reel has journeyed into one of the last remote places on earth and come back with a tale as unique as the solitary Indian it describes. In this sure-handed recounting of a brave race against time by a small group of idealists, he provides an urgent and lyrical reminder of the value of preserving mystery in the world.”

        – Benjamin Wallace, author of the New York Times bestseller The Billionaire’s Vinegar

“In chronicling the needle-in-a-haystack hunt for a lone Indian in the Amazon, Monte Reel has written a brilliant tale of man versus the jungle, of the dilemmas and dangers in trying to protect the few remaining indigenous tribes from the rapacious march of development. It is a riveting detective story. Once you crack open The Last of the Tribe, you'll find it impossible to stop reading.”

        – Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's

           Green  Zone

“The tragedy that rises off the pages of The Last of the Tribe is mankind helpless to save itself—and the Amazon—from itself. Yet, in this gripping account hope shines through in the resolve of the brave and tenacious sertanistas to contact and save a lone isolated tribesman. Where experience is measured in bouts of malaria, the good guys attempt to outfox the greedy who recklessly exploit the jungle. Reel tells the story with vigor and restraint, both in the right places. I recommend it.”

   

        – Dean King, author of Skeletons on the Zahara and Unbound

“An exhilarating tale of obsession and loss, The Last of the Tribe guides us through the shadowy heart of Amazonia, a raucous frontier plagued by violence wrought in the name of progress. It is here that a lone Indian, pursued by rapacious ranchers and compassionate souls alike, becomes a celebrated symbol of defiance. Monte Reel’s account of this unlikely hero’s quest to survive is richly detailed, deeply humane, and wholly unforgettable.”

        – Brendan I. Koerner, author of Now the Hell Will Start

“...Reel delivers a moving, well-constructed account of a latter-day Ishi in the embattled Amazonian rainforest... Unlike the story of Ishi, however, this one has a happy ending – a pay-off that isn’t entirely anticipated, given all the other tragic aspects of the tale.”

        – Kirkus Reviews