Longtime animal lover Kobie Krüger got a little more than she bargained for when she married a game warden and moved deep into some of South Africa's wildest country.

In The Wilderness Family, Krüger recounts adventures and misadventures with the curious menagerie that shared her turf--and sometimes her roof--in the remote Mahlangeni section of Kruger National Park, which lies in the river-laced country between South Africa and Mozambique. Among the animals she encounters in the pages of her memoir are enterprising hyenas who, for whatever reason, pilfer cookware and blankets; a python that crept into bed with the Krügers on their first night in Mahlangeni; Egyptian goslings raised by a proud but broad-minded bantam hen; and the occasional ill-tempered elephant. Most affecting of all her encounters, however, is her long association with an orphaned lion cub named Leo, whom she and her family raised into adulthood. Leo, whose pastimes included alarming unsuspecting visitors and staring at passing birds in the sky, takes center stage for much of this book, and Krüger's loving portrait is a warm rejoinder to Joy Adamson's Born Free.

Readers who come to this memorable study of life in the African outback will be duly entertained, and those who are planning a trip there will learn a thing or two about how to behave around genets, cobras, rhinos--and, yes, lions. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly
A remote ranger station in the wilds of South Africa's Krger National Park provides the landscape for this memoir of the 17 years that the author, her game warden husband and their daughters lived in the bush amid the big cats and other exotic fauna of this idyllic region. Whether she's recounting a near-slapstick encounter with a creeping python in the bedroom on the family's first night in the backcountry, the nocturnal calls of a prowling local leopard, continual and scary confrontations with a grumpy hippo or a raging bull elephant's death charge, Krger's sturdy and unadorned prose is well suited to the book's natural setting. The animal anecdotes tumble across the pages, at a pace that will engage readers who enjoy natural history and plainspoken yarns; indeed, the book hit #1 in South Africa. Meanwhile, the adversities of a stifling climate, jungle diseases and ornery vipers provide grim balance to the more uplifting adventures recounted here. The land, its creatures and its unchanging laws of survival serve as mentors to the author and her family, and lead the reader toward deeper insights about life beyond the furthest reaches of civilization. For instance, the poignant episode of raising an orphan lion cub into adulthood becomes a lesson in responsibility, freedom and loss for the girls and their mother. The wilderness depicted in this book, is by turns, a demanding teacher and a provider of wondrous gifts. Illus. and photos not seen by PW. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Kruger, the wife of a South African game warden, raised her three daughters at remote ranger stations in Kruger National Park in the 1980s and 1990s. First they lived in near-complete isolation at Mahlangeni, where the author communed with her many wild pets while her daughters were at boarding school during the week. It was difficult for her to reenter society at their next station, which was relatively populated, but she quickly found her life dominated by raising an orphan lion cub named Leo. Ultimately, the affectionate Leo had to be relocated to a reserve for captive-bred lions, a break felt bitterly by both big cat and woman. Kr ger shows a strong anthropomorphic streak in her tales of animals, both wild and domesticated, but this is part of her charm. She has a wonderful flare for anecdote and gently humorous stories, such as the day her rugged husband, swelling from a snake bite, could not be budged from his chair to go to the hospital. This book will appeal to fans of James Herriot, Gerald Durrell, Joy Adamson, and anyone interested in wild Africa. A best seller in South Africa, it is highly recommended for public and academic libraries.- Beth Crim, Prince William P.L., VA Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
When Kruger's husband, Kobus, is offered a job as a game ranger in a national park in South Africa, she is very excited. Their new home is in Mahlangeni, a remote, isolated area, where their neighbors include leopards, hippos, and elephants; and Kobie, her husband, and their three daughters couldn't love it more. The first half of her report is filled with anecdotes of the family's life there, from encounters with a bellicose hippo while crossing the river to run-ins with an elephant that challenges cars crossing his path. The book really comes together, however, in the second half (published as a separate volume in South Africa), when, after moving to a different part of the park, Kobie and her family adopt an abandoned lion cub and name him Leo. Leo is a rambunctious youngster, who loves to wrestle with the family members and pounce on visitors. The Krugers' adventures with Leo are touching and fascinating; a huge success in South Africa, the book well may be a hit here, too. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
“Fascinating…The Wilderness Family…is a highly engaging work because of its wealth of detail about the creatures, plants, landscape and rhythms of Africa. Kruger brings us into her world and we learn, as she and her family did, how to make the most of rare experiences and how to hone the survival instinct.” —Bob Blakey, Calgary Herald

Review
?Fascinating?The Wilderness Family?is a highly engaging work because of its wealth of detail about the creatures, plants, landscape and rhythms of Africa. Kruger brings us into her world and we learn, as she and her family did, how to make the most of rare experiences and how to hone the survival instinct.? ?Bob Blakey, Calgary Herald

Book Description
Everyone warned Kobie Krüger that being the wife of a game warden at a remote ranger station in South Africa's largest national park would be an arduous move. The heat was unbearable, malaria would be a constant danger, her husband would have to be away for long stretches, there were no schools or nearby doctors for their three daughters, and of course the area teemed with wild animals. Yet for Kobie and her family, the seventeen years at South Africa's Kruger National Park were the most magical of their lives. Now, in The Wilderness Family, Kobie recounts the enchanting adventures and extraordinary encounters they experienced in this vast reserve where wildlife has right of way.

Kobie and her husband Kobus were overwhelmed by the beauty of the Mahlangeni ranger station when they arrived with their little girls in the autumn of 1980. Golden sunshine glowed in the lush garden where fruit bats hung in the sausage trees; hippos basked in the glittering waters of the Letaba River; storks and herons perched along the shore. Kobie felt she had found heaven on earth--until she awoke that first night to find a python slithering silently across her bedroom floor. It was the perfect introduction to the wonders and terrors that awaited her.

As the Krügers settled in, they became accustomed to living in the midst of ravishing splendor and daily surprises. A honey badger they nursed back to health rampaged affectionately through the house. Sneaky hyenas stole blankets and cook pots. Ordinarily placid elephants grew foul-tempered and violent in the summer heat. And one terrible day, the shadow of tragedy fell across the family when a lion attacked Kobus in the bush and nearly killed him.

But nothing prepared the Krügers for the adventure of raising an orphaned lion cub. The cub was only a few days old and on the verge of death when they found him alone. Leo, as the girls promptly named the cub, survived on loads of love and bottles of fat-enriched milk, and soon became an affectionate, rambunctious member of the family. At the heart of the book, Kobie recounts the unique bond that each of the Krügers forged with Leo and their sometimes hilarious endeavor to teach him to become a "real" lion and live with his own kind in the wild.

Writing with deep affection and luminous prose, Kobie Krüger captures here the mystery of untamed Africa--its fathomless skies, soulful landscapes, and most of all, its astonishing array of animals. By turns funny and
heart-breaking, engaging and suspenseful, The Wilderness Family is an unforgettable memoir of a woman, her family, and the amazing game reserve they called home for seventeen incredible years.



From the Inside Flap
Everyone warned Kobie Krüger that being the wife of a game warden at a remote ranger station in South Africa's largest national park would be an arduous move. The heat was unbearable, malaria would be a constant danger, her husband would have to be away for long stretches, there were no schools or nearby doctors for their three daughters, and of course the area teemed with wild animals. Yet for Kobie and her family, the seventeen years at South Africa's Kruger National Park were the most magical of their lives. Now, in The Wilderness Family, Kobie recounts the enchanting adventures and extraordinary encounters they experienced in this vast reserve where wildlife has right of way.

Kobie and her husband Kobus were overwhelmed by the beauty of the Mahlangeni ranger station when they arrived with their little girls in the autumn of 1980. Golden sunshine glowed in the lush garden where fruit bats hung in the sausage trees; hippos basked in the glittering waters of the Letaba River; storks and herons perched along the shore. Kobie felt she had found heaven on earth--until she awoke that first night to find a python slithering silently across her bedroom floor. It was the perfect introduction to the wonders and terrors that awaited her.

As the Krügers settled in, they became accustomed to living in the midst of ravishing splendor and daily surprises. A honey badger they nursed back to health rampaged affectionately through the house. Sneaky hyenas stole blankets and cook pots. Ordinarily placid elephants grew foul-tempered and violent in the summer heat. And one terrible day, the shadow of tragedy fell across the family when a lion attacked Kobus in the bush and nearly killed him.

But nothing prepared the Krügers for the adventure of raising an orphaned lion cub. The cub was only a few days old and on the verge of death when they found him alone.  Leo, as the girls promptly named the cub, survived on loads of love and bottles of fat-enriched milk, and soon became an affectionate, rambunctious member of the family. At the heart of the book, Kobie recounts the unique bond that each of the Krügers forged with Leo and their sometimes hilarious endeavor to teach him to become a "real" lion and live with his own kind in the wild.

Writing with deep affection and luminous prose, Kobie Krüger captures here the mystery of untamed Africa--its fathomless skies, soulful landscapes, and most of all, its astonishing array of animals. By turns funny and
heart-breaking, engaging and suspenseful, The Wilderness Family is an unforgettable memoir of a woman, her family, and the amazing game reserve they called home for seventeen incredible years.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
In 1980, Kobie Krüger's husband became a game warden in South Africa's Kruger National Park, a 12,000-square-mile expanse teeming with lions, elephants, giraffes, and the like. Along with their three daughters, the couple would spend the next 17 years living in the park, amid the dangers and beauties of its wildlife. In this lovely book, Born Free meets The Swiss Family Robinson as Krüger recounts their sometimes-harrowing adventures in affecting prose.

These adventures really run the spectrum. The expected run-ins with malaria, poachers, and marauding elephants are interspersed with more unusual situations: a python that conceals itself in a chest of drawers and hyenas that raid the compound for leather shoes and saddles to eat. Yet despite these encounters with curious, mischievous, or just plain venomous fauna, as well as the searing summer heat and the loneliness that comes when her children leave for college, Krüger comes to cherish what this special place gives her. Nothing exceeds the tremendous bond she develops with Leo, an abandoned lion cub whom she raises for more than a year, then is forced to part with -- although that story has a happy ending. Leo's attachment to everyone, especially Krüger herself, is one of those extraordinary events that make you question the accepted banalities about animal intelligence.

In raising their daughters out in the bush, the Krügers inculcate them with fortitude, grace, and a humility born of life in such surroundings. One of the most telling scenes comes when the family travels to a nearby town, and the youngest daughter sees a house cat for the first time. Nature, for them, is no fuzzy, warm thing behind bars; rather, it's a powerful entity that demands respect but returns it with incredible beauty. The Wilderness Family is firm in its insistence that "We need animals. Just think how lonely this world would be without them." (Jonathan Cook)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Everyone warned Kobie Krüger that being the wife of a game warden at a remote ranger station in South Africa's largest national park would be an arduous move. The heat was unbearable, malaria would be a constant danger, her husband would have to be away for long stretches, there were no schools or nearby doctors for their three daughters, and of course the area teemed with wild animals. Yet for Kobie and her family, the seventeen years at South Africa's Kruger National Park were the most magical of their lives. Now, in The Wilderness Family, Kobie recounts the enchanting adventures and extraordinary encounters they experienced in this vast reserve where wildlife has right of way.

Kobie and her husband Kobus were overwhelmed by the beauty of the Mahlangeni ranger station when they arrived with their little girls in the autumn of 1980. Golden sunshine glowed in the lush garden where fruit bats hung in the sausage trees; hippos basked in the glittering waters of the Letaba River; storks and herons perched along the shore. Kobie felt she had found heaven on earth—until she awoke that first night to find a python slithering silently across her bedroom floor. It was the perfect introduction to the wonders and terrors that awaited her.

As the Krügers settled in, they became accustomed to living in the midst of ravishing splendor and daily surprises. A honey badger they nursed back to health rampaged affectionately through the house. Sneaky hyenas stole blankets and cook pots. Ordinarily placid elephants grew foul-tempered and violent in the summer heat. And one terrible day, the shadow of tragedy fell across the family when a lion attacked Kobus in the bush andnearly killed him.

But nothing prepared the Krügers for the adventure of raising an orphaned lion cub. The cub was only a few days old and on the verge of death when they found him alone. Leo, as the girls promptly named the cub, survived on loads of love and bottles of fat-enriched milk, and soon became an affectionate, rambunctious member of the family. At the heart of the book, Kobie recounts the unique bond that each of the Krügers forged with Leo and their sometimes hilarious endeavor to teach him to become a "real" lion and live with his own kind in the wild.

Writing with deep affection and luminous prose, Kobie Krüger captures here the mystery of untamed Africa—its fathomless skies, soulful landscapes, and most of all, its astonishing array of animals. By turns funny and
heart-breaking, engaging and suspenseful, The Wilderness Family is an unforgettable memoir of a woman, her family, and the amazing game reserve they called home for seventeen incredible years.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly