When the Last Lion Roars: The Rise and Fall of the King of the Beasts

Travel writer and photojournalist Evans crosses continents in a circuitous and overly detailed account of the history of lions. The book informs readers about the lion’s millennium-long dispersal across Africa, Asia, and the New World, as well as the varying roles the lion has played in human history. Radiocarbon dates pile up as prehistoric cave drawings and ice age skeletons, found in Siberia’s permafrost and California’s La Brea Tar Pits, come under Evans’s scrutiny. Calling the relationship between humans and lions “bloodstained,” she gives examples that range from the self-glorifying hunts of Assyria’s King Ashurnasirpal II in the eighth century BCE to the modern poaching industry, along with the threat that lions still pose to humans and livestock throughout Africa. Country by country, Evans documents the cat’s decline as well as conservation efforts in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and elsewhere. She also includes a long to-do list on how to save the lion, extracted from the 2016 Cecil Summit (inspired by the death of Cecil the lion). Though the message is clear—“The lions we have left are remnants... the bright flame of a flagship species is burning out”—too many statistics burden the narrative, and what could have been a fascinating book ends up being not much more than a dull tally. (Sept.)