The Lost Whale: The True Story of an Orca Named Luna

“My mind thinks in pictures long before it gets around to words,” explains National Geographic writer and filmmaker Parfit. Like the documentary film version of the story (The Whale, released in 2011), the plot is a simple one: an orca whale, Luna, separated from his pod at a young age, turns to humans for social connection. After warning people not to interact too much with Luna, lest the creature become tame, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) decided to try and reunite him with his pod. Things get complicated, and the reader, like Parfit and his wife, Chisholm, can’t help but “get swept up in its turbulence.” With tourists, fishermen, scientists, First Nations groups, and the DFO all squabbling, it’s easy to get lost in the abundance of characters, and Parfit sometimes lapses into overly florid prose (despite the authorial double billing, the book is written in the first person from Parfit’s perspective). In addition, the frequent chapter breaks seem designed to enhance the drama, unnecessarily so. Still, Luna’s story brings a thorny dilemma to the table—what should humanity’s role toward nature be?—and the book does a surprisingly good job of showing the range of emotions behind that question. Agent: Kris Dahl, ICM. (June)