For the first time, a riveting insider's account of the fascinating world of Dr. Dian Fossey’s mountain gorilla camp, telling the often-shocking story of the unraveling of Fossey’s Rwandan facility alongside adventures tracking mountain gorillas over hostile terrain, confronting aggressive silverbacks, and rehabilitating orphaned baby gorillas. In A Forest in the Clouds , John Fowler takes us into the world of Karisoke Research Center, the remote mountain gorilla camp of Dr. Dian Fossey, a few years prior to her gruesome murder. Drawn to the adventure and promise of learning the science of studying mountain gorillas amid the beauty of Central Africa’s cloud forest, Fowler soon learns the cold harsh realities of life inside Fossey’s enclave ten thousand feet up in the Virunga Volcanoes. Instead of the intrepid scientist he had admired in the pages of National Geographic, Fowler finds a chain-smoking, hard-drinking woman bullying her staff into submission. While pressures mount from powers beyond Karisoke in an effort to extricate Fossey from her domain of thirteen years, she brings new students in to serve her most pressing need―to hang on to the remote research camp that has become her mountain home. Increasingly bizarre behavior has targeted Fossey for extrication by an ever-growing group of detractors―from conservation and research organizations to the Rwandan government. Amid the turmoil, Fowler must abandon his own research assignments to assuage the troubled Fossey as she orders him on illegal treks across the border into Zaire, over volcanoes, in search of missing gorillas, and to serve as surrogate parent to an orphaned baby ape in preparation for its traumatic re-introduction into a wild gorilla group. This riveting story is the only first-person account from inside Dian Fossey’s beleaguered camp. Fowler must come to grips with his own aspirations, career objectives, and disappointments as he develops the physical endurance to keep up with mountain gorillas over volcanic terrain in icy downpours above ten thousand feet, only to be affronted by the frightening charges of indignant giant silverbacks or to be treed by aggressive forest buffalos. Back in camp, he must nurture the sensitivity and patience needed for the demands of rehabilitating an orphaned baby gorilla. A Forest in the Clouds takes the armchair adventurer on a journey into an extraordinary world that now only exists in the memories of the very few who knew it. “A vivid inside view of field research on two equally famous subjects: the gorillas and the notoriously difficult Fossey.” - Booklist (starred) “John Fowler is a born storyteller. Prepare to climb with him high up into the forest as you experience fear, exhaustion, rain-drenched chill, and, finally, the supreme thrill of proximity with the awe-inspiring mountain gorillas. It was her love for them, and her fight to save them, that finally alienated Dian Fossey from human society. Unpredictable, tormented, and embittered, she now casts a dark shadow over this remote world.” - Jane Goodall “Both a visceral ethological record and a disturbing portrait of an anguished and embittered Fossey. Fowler ultimately gives Fossey her due as the researcher who taught the world to love a kindred species, even as she became increasingly estranged from her own.” - Nature “Fowler describes in detail his life and work in the beautiful Virunga Mountains and shares his experiences studying gorillas at Karisoke. Vividly descriptive of the landscape, plants, and animals Fowler encounters, this fascinating memoir will appeal to those interested in Dian Fossey, gorilla conservation, and the life of a research scientist.” - Library Journal “Of interest to students of field science as well as devotees of Gorillas in the Mist .” - Kirkus Reviews “Fowler’s memoir of his year spent as a student assistant at the Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda conveys delight in and appreciation for gorilla-human relationships.” - Publishers Weekly “ Finally a detailed account on Dian Fossey, the savior of the mountain gorillas who was murdered in 1985, by one of her students at the Karisoke Research Centre (and who often experienced her psychotic outbursts). There’s plenty of lyrical natural description on the flora and fauna, as well as portraits of individual gorillas and colleagues whom he came to know well. It must have been hard for Fowler to relive the abuse he was subjected to by this damaged woman, but I'm glad he has left us such a full record of his time in the magical Virungas. ” - Alex Shoumatoff, author of The Wasting of Borneo and editor of DispatchesFromTheVanishingWorld.com “Be prepared for tension, joy, and awe as you trek through the primitive cloud forest in Rwanda―an unnerving chill takes hold in response to Fowler’s vivid descriptions of the rugged and wild home of the mountain gorillas, along with the overwhelmingly cantankerous manner of their protector, Diane