The Snake Charmer: A Life and Death in Pursuit of Knowledge

Book Description

Although it was still too dark to see well, Joe absentmindedly thrust his right hand into the sack to extract the specimen and have a look. Immediately, he winced with pain and yanked out his hand. A tiny black-and-white banded snake, less than ten inches long, was dangling limply from his middle finger, its fangs still sunk into his flesh.

In the fall of 2001, deep in the jungle of Burma, a team of scientists is searching for rare snakes. They are led by Dr. Joe Slowinski, at forty already one of the most brilliant biologists of our time. It is the most ambitious scientific expedition ever mounted into this remote region, venturing into the foothills of the Himalayas. The bold undertaking is brought to a dramatic halt by the bite of the many-banded krait, the deadliest serpent in Asia. In the moment he pulled his hand from the specimen bag and saw the krait, Joe knew that his life was in grave and imminent peril. Thus began one of the most remarkable wilderness rescue attempts of modern times, as Joe’s teammates kept him alive for thirty hours by mouth-to-mouth respiration, waiting for a rescue that never came.

A daredevil obsessed with venomous snakes since his youth, Slowinski was a modern-day adventurer who rose quickly to the top of his field, discovering many previously unidentified snake species in his brief yet exhilarating career. The Snake Charmeris at once brilliant biography and exotic travel literature, blended with an accessible introduction to the bizarre, fascinating-and sometimes controversial-world of snake science. The narrative transports the reader into primeval wilderness, from the Everglades to Peru to Burma, in search of rattlesnakes and boa constrictors, kraits and cobras.

Joe Slowinski’s career was fast and exciting, his tragic final expedition a pulse-pounding struggle between man and nature. In The Snake Charmer, renowned journalist and author Jamie James captures the life and death of this charismatic, endlessly fascinating man. Exhaustively researched in interviews with Slowinski’s colleagues and family, and the author’s own trek into the wilds of Burma, this is narrative nonfiction in the tradition of Into the Wild and The Perfect Storm.

中文：

书名：《猎蛇人》：追寻知识的生死

尽管天还太黑，看不清楚，乔还是心不在焉地把右手伸进麻袋里，取出标本看了一眼。立刻，他疼得直打退堂鼓，猛地拉出了手。一条不到十英寸长的黑白条纹的小蛇，从他的中指上软弱无力地摇晃着，它的尖牙还深深地扎在他的肉里。

2001年秋天，在缅甸丛林深处，一组科学家正在寻找稀有的蛇。他们由40岁的乔·斯洛宾斯基博士领导，他已经是我们这个时代最杰出的生物学家之一。这是有史以来进入这个偏远地区的最雄心勃勃的科学探险，冒险进入喜马拉雅山脚下。这一大胆的尝试被亚洲最致命的毒蛇–多刺克拉特蛇咬了一口，戏剧性地停了下来。乔从标本袋中抽出手，看到了克莱特，他知道自己的生命正处于严重而迫在眉睫的危险之中。就这样，乔的队友们用人工呼吸让他活了30个小时，等待着从未到来的救援，这是现代最引人注目的荒野救援尝试之一。

Slowinski从小就痴迷于毒蛇，他是一名现代冒险家，在他短暂但令人振奋的职业生涯中，他迅速上升到他所在领域的顶端，发现了许多以前未知的蛇物种。 猎蛇人既是精彩的传记，又是充满异国情调的旅行文学，其中混杂着对奇怪、迷人–有时也是有争议的–蛇科学世界的介绍。故事将读者带到原始的荒野中，从大沼泽地到秘鲁，再到缅甸，寻找响尾蛇、蟒蛇、克拉特和眼镜蛇。

乔·斯洛温斯基的职业生涯是快速而激动人心的，他悲惨的最后一次探险是人与自然之间令人心跳加速的斗争。在……里面 猎蛇人著名记者兼作家杰米·詹姆斯捕捉到了这位富有魅力、永无止境的迷人男人的生死。在对Slowinski的同事和家人的采访中进行了详尽的研究，以及作者自己对缅甸荒野的跋涉，这是一种传统的叙事非虚构类作品 走进荒野 和 完美风暴。