Journeying deep into the mountainous rainforests of Burma and India, Jacob Shell explores the world of teak-logging elephants and their handlers, a partnership that can last for decades. This "beautifully written travelogue" (New Yorker) also reveals an unexpected relationship between evolution in the natural world and political struggles in the human one, while considering how Asia's secret forest culture might offer a way to help protect the fragile spaces both elephants and humans need to survive.

"Thought-provoking…. Examining everything from the muscular miracle of the beast's proboscis to the species' wartime work, Shell also charts the threats facing Asian elephants."—Nature