Digital List Price:	$17.99
Kindle Price:	$10.89 Save $7.10 (39%)
Sold by:	Amazon.com Services LLC

Promotions apply when you purchase

Add an

audiobook with Audible narration for $7.49

Audiobook Price: $12.28

Save: $4.79 (39%)

Read with our free app

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Follow the author

John Zada

+ Follow

More books from this author

In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch Kindle Edition

by John Zada (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 353 ratings

Editors' pick Best Nonfiction

See all formats and editions

Great on Kindle

Great Experience. Great Value.

Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.

A journalist travels through British Columbia exploring of one of the world’s most baffling mysteries—the existence of the Sasquatch.

On the central and north coast of British Columbia, the Great Bear Rainforest is the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world, containing more organic matter than any other terrestrial ecosystem on the planet. The area plays host to a wide range of species, from thousand-year-old western cedars to humpback whales to iconic white Spirit bears.

According to local residents, another giant is said to live in these woods. For centuries people have reported encounters with the Sasquatch—a species of hairy bipedal man-apes said to inhabit the deepest recesses of this pristine wilderness. Driven by his own childhood obsession with the creatures, John Zada decides to seek out the diverse inhabitants of this rugged and far-flung coast, where nearly everyone has a story to tell, from a scientist who dedicated his life to researching the Sasquatch, to members of the area’s First Nations, to a former grizzly bear hunter-turned-nature tour guide. With each tale, Zada discovers that his search for the Sasquatch is a quest for something infinitely more complex, cutting across questions of human perception, scientific inquiry, indigenous traditions, the environment, and the power and desire of the human imagination to believe in—or reject—something largely unseen.

Teeming with gorgeous nature writing and a driving narrative that takes us through the forests and into the valleys of a remote and seldom visited region, In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond sheds light on what our decades-long pursuit of the Sasquatch can tell us about ourselves and invites us to welcome wonder for the unknown back into our lives.

Praise for In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond

“Books on supernatural phenomena typically steer one of two courses: tabloid gullibility or mean-spirited debunkery. Zada deftly tightropes between the two. . . . In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond is not really about sasquatch. It is about how we see what we want to see and don’t see what we’re not prepared to see. . . . A quirky and oddly captivating tale.” —Eric Weiner, Washington Post

“An adventure story in the tradition of Paul Theroux and, in parts, Jon Krakauer. . . . Zada is a latter-day Henry David Thoreau or John Muir. . . . Searching for an elusive ape, Zada has a knack for meeting unforgettable humans.” —Peter Kuitenbrouwer, Globe and Mail

“If people can believe in God, why not Sasquatch? Zada takes us through the temperate rainforest of British Columbia looking for both the hairy bipedal and the mythology and landscape surrounding it. Terrific nature writing with a furry twist.” —Kerri Arsenault, Orion

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of July 2019: To many (or most), Bigfoot is a fantastical if not downright silly subject, one that has attracted mostly silly contributions. If you're a thoughtful person with a fact-based career—say, a scientist or journalist—pursuing the notorious Skunk Ape can hinder your professional ambitions, or scuttle them entirely. John Zada might be one of the exceptions. Like many children of the 1970s who grew up watching Leonard Nimoy In Search Of unexplained phenomena, The Six-Million Dollar Man's battles with an extraterrestrial Urayuli, and (for the real deep-divers) the low-rent cinéma vérité of The Legend of Boggy Creek, he developed a thing for Sasquatch. But while he grew up to become a globe-traveling writer and photographer whose work has appeared in The Globe & Mail and the Los Angeles Review of Books, that thing never really went away.

While exploring the Great Bear Rainforest, a remote and utterly wild expanse on British Columbia's northwest coast, Zada was struck by the prevalence of Sasquatch wherever he went—and not just the quantity of the narratives, but the matter-of-fact manner of the storytellers. He returned with a mission, interviewing scientists, First Nations peoples, hunters, and conservationists about the legendary giant, and did he ever bring back some good Bigfoot stories! In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond (originally envisioned as an article before the pile-up of material turned it into a book) takes those accounts seriously while walking a fine line between skepticism and credulity. It's less the hooting and wood-knocking sensationalism of Finding Bigfoot (though that show certainly has its charms) than Robert Michael Pyles's Where Bigfoot Walks, another book that leans toward respectability with its emphasis on natural history. Zada's entry is a beautifully rendered account of a mist-shrouded world suspended between myth and modernity: its people, culture, and ecology, and, for receptive readers, its most mysterious denizen. —Jon Foro

Review

Praise for In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond:
An Amazon Best Book of the Year
Named a Must-Read Book of 2019 by Book Riot

"Books on supernatural phenomena typically steer one of two courses: tabloid gullibility or mean-spirited debunkery. Zada deftly tightropes between the two . . . In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond is not really about sasquatch. It is about how we see what we want to see and don't see what we're not prepared to see . . . A quirky and oddly captivating tale."
-Eric Weiner, Washington Post

"An adventure story in the tradition of Paul Theroux and, in parts, Jon Krakauer . . . Zada is a latter-day Henry David Thoreau or John Muir . . . Searching for an elusive ape, Zada has a knack for meeting unforgettable humans."
-Peter Kuitenbrouwer, Globe and Mail

"Finally a truly talented writer approaches a subject matter that has been otherwise relegated to a cultural punchline thanks to, primarily, reality television. John Zada's quest for this holy grail and his compulsion for emotional narrative is nothing less than a modern-day mythical journey; and he shares it with us in a perfect blend of poetic prose and creative story-telling."
-Survivorman Les Stroud

"If people can believe in God, why not Sasquatch? Zada takes us through the temperate rainforest of British Columbia looking for both the hairy bipedal and the mythology and landscape surrounding it. Terrific nature writing with a furry twist."
-Kerri Arsenault, Orion

"In this fascinating nature narrative, freelance writer Zada searches for evidence of Bigfoot in the forests of the Pacific Northwest . . . Zada relates his adventures, including his encounters with bears, along with his observations into the collective unconscious of humans and how brains construct reality . . . Zada's fun, well-written travelogue will interest environmentalists and armchair adventurers alike."
-Publishers Weekly

"Full of dramatic, tense chase scenes?the book is, quite literally, an adventure story."
-Nick Ripatrazone, The Millions

"As eloquent and big-hearted as, for instance, Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard . . . Despite the towering creature at its heart, the genius of In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond is most often its human pathos . . . Odd, winning gravitas . . . The shelf of serious, beautifully done Bigfoot books isn't exactly a crowded one, but it now has an indisputable classic."
-Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly

"Less the hooting and wood-knocking sensationalism of Finding Bigfoot (though that show certainly has its charms) than Robert Michael Pyles's Where Bigfoot Walks, another book that leans toward respectability with its emphasis on natural history. Zada's entry is a beautifully rendered account of a mist-shrouded world suspended between myth and modernity: its people, culture, ecology, and for receptive readers, its most mysterious denizen."
-Jon Foro, Amazon Book Review

"In seeking to discover Bigfoot, Zada uncovers a different story, one that's about all of us . . . [In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond] belongs among the travel memoirs. It's literature."
-Oklahoman

"For lovers of nature writing who also definitely want to know about the Sasquatch (so, everyone)."
-Emily Temple, Literary Hub

"Bigfoot lives?maybe, as this X-Files-worthy tale reveals . . . Traveling deep into the old-growth forests of British Columbia, [Zada] had a look for himself, and it's not too much of a spoiler to say that he adds to the seen/unproven inventory . . . Believe or don't, the author writes nimbly and well, and his story is modest and evenhanded even as he lets us know just where he stands. An entertaining, provocative exercise in cryptozoology."
-Kirkus Reviews

"John Zada is one of those rare writers who conjures spellbinding prose through an acute sense of nature's significance and the mythologies we all inhabit. A profound debut."
-Robert Twigger, author of White Mountain: A Cultural Adventure through the Himalayas

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07NP1JQGH
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atlantic Monthly Press (July 2, 2019)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 2, 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4863 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 343 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #429,357 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #204 in Mythology & Folklore Encyclopedias
- #276 in Folklore & Mythology
- #287 in Adventure Travel (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 353 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

John Zada

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

John Zada is an author, journalist and photographer based in Toronto, Canada. An interest in adventure travel and remote regions have taken him to some far-flung parts of the world.

His first book, 'In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch', was chosen as an Amazon Best Book of 2019 and was shortlisted for the 2020 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction. The Washington Post describes it as "a quirky and oddly captivating tale." Steve Donoghue of Open Letters Monthly calls the book "as eloquent and big-hearted as, for instance, Peter Matthiessen’s The Snow Leopard."

John's work has appeared in such publications as the Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Travel + Leisure, BBC, CBC, Al-Jazeera, New York Post, Explore, Maisonneuve, Montecristo, Los Angeles Review of Books, Toque & Canoe and Canadian Business.

Before turning his focus to writing, he spent several years working as a documentary filmmaker. He directed such projects as 'Up At Dawn: The Working Children of Egypt', and 'The Bitterest Exile'. More recently, John worked as a producer on 'Canada's Dark Secret' for Al-Jazeera, a film about Canada's residential school system.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

353 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all photos

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Kamisha

Sasquatch in the Great Bear Rainforest

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2019

Verified Purchase

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I absolutely enjoyed reading this book! Based on the fact that it was about searching for Sasquatch in the Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia (one of the most fascinating ecosystems in the world to me) I already knew this book was up my alley, but it was so much better than what I expected.

In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond is about a journalist searching for signs of Sasquatch in one of the most ecologically rich forests on earth. But this is so much more than simply another Squatch hunt. Zada excels at creating this beautiful narrative about this almost otherworldly place that exists on the edge of society, his empathy and respect for the Great Bear Rainforest and its denizens (human, animal, plant, and cryptid) shines through the story. I was so compelled by this read that I realized I was reading it faster than I wanted to and ended up having to slow myself down!

Not only does Zada approach Sasquatch with hopeful rationality but he also adds an especially respectful and compelling account of the complex nature of what seeing Sasquatch or humanoid-like creatures means for certain cultures, for humans in general, and occasionally for our emotional states. I appreciated the way he balanced science and tradition. He covers many different scientific views on Bigfoot, both skeptic and believers, while also taking the time to speak with local indigenous communities and finding out what Bigfoot traditionally meant to them as a culture.

Overall, I cannot recommend In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond enough for fellow cryptozoology enthusiasts, or even someone looking for well done nature writing!

41 people found this helpful

Helpful

John W. Thompson

More than Bigfoot

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2019

Verified Purchase

Ostensibly a Bigfoot book, this is really a book about a place, the Great Bear Rainforest, and it's people. The book is a fascinating look at the people and places of the region, as well as the issues they face. Along the way, the author also explores the phenomena of Bigfoot in a way I've not seen before in a book of its type.

For anyone who, like the author and myself, discovered Bigfoot in library books as a child and still maintains an interest, this book is a great read.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Mtndweller

Unique Perspective on the Sasquatch

Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2023

Verified Purchase

I listened to this as an audiobook from my local library and found it to be unlike anything that I have read or heard previously about this cryptid. I bought this printed book to give as a gift. No photos, just a couple of black and white maps of the research area. I highly recommend this book if you want a more scholarly and mystical view of the Sasquatch instead of the usual "weekend festival with prize hunt" type of approach.

Helpful

KVR

Beautiful, even handed perspective on a controversial topic

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book is quite possibly one of the finest in the genre. Zada gracefully and deliberately steps away from the worn out, overly concrete binary argument of "Does it or does it not exist," and finds the uncertain middle ground where the true mystery of Bigfoot phenomena lies. As part of his even-handed exploration, the author hauntingly and carefully conveys the impact human greed has had upon the land and communities embedded in the areas in and around around the Great Bear Rainforest, where so many Bigfoot sightings take place. He does this without judgment, enhancing the enshadowed space he creates for mystery to reverberate within the reader. Especially unique and compelling is his exploration of the possibility that Bigfoot "exists" somewhere outside the comforting illusion of a Cartesian subject/ object split, i.e. somewhere in the space between our perceptions and externally-based phenomena. His beautiful prose offers a portal into this unsettling in-between space where beauty, loss, hardship, wilderness, and mystery co-exist.

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2024

Verified Purchase

My father in law really liked it

Helpful

Captain K

A Book More About Us than Sasquatch

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2019

Verified Purchase

The author turned a childhood fascination with Sasquatch/Bigfoot into a journey to a remote area of Canada where sightings have been frequently reported. His descriptions of this forgotten corner of North America are vivid and spellbinding; less so an endless stream of conversations with people, mostly Native Americans, who claim to have encountered the creature. He also writes well and even-handedly about political issues facing the region, such as building ports for oil tankers in an area formally designated as wilderness, the powerlessness of some of the tribes, and the question of commercial hunting vs. eco-tourism. Unfortunately the narrative crashes against endless speculation on whether the creatures actually exist - not just weighing the evidence, but plunging into the depths of psychology on why people believe the things they do. Some of these almost persuaded me to shelve the book before finishing, but I am at least glad I didn't.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

William

Fresh Look at the Bigfoot

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2019

Verified Purchase

Very much enjoyed Mr. Zada's vivid depiction of the density, expanse and remoteness of that part of British Colombia in which he roamed in search of the sasquatch. While I wished he had provided more detail of some of the incidents that he relates, his depiction did make me wonder if this enigma does indeed involve a real creature. It also made me ponder the influence of social & cultural upbringing on how this subject is viewed, both intellectually and physically. Well worth reading if you have an interest in this mystery.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Utterly unique gem of a book

Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2023

Verified Purchase

I was drawn to this book because, as an anthropologist, I’ve always been alternately baffled and disappointed that most scientists don’t take the possibility of an elusive American ape more seriously.

I absolutely loved it. Much more than a travel book—though Zada’s carefully wrought descriptions of the Great Bear Rainforest, including its human inhabitants, absolutely transported me—and much more than a hunt for Sasquatch—though the stories intrigued me. Ultimately, a philosophical exploration that suggests that our understandings of Sasquatch and whether or not they exist is far more revealing about us as humans than anything else. Left me wondering and wishing to stay in this written world.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Kona Guy

Excellent Read

Reviewed in Canada on July 31, 2023

Verified Purchase

This is one of the best books on Bigfoot that I’ve read. Lots of Canadian content for all us Great White Notherners!

One person found this helpful

K O'Brien

A book about those who quest for answers, rather than a quest itself (for Sasquatch & other things)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 12, 2019

Verified Purchase

I picked this up on the recommendation of a friend, and discovered it was not what I thought it was going to be. While Zada notes his own childhood interests (obsession?) in Sasquatch, his book is far more about the journey to discover those who continue to search for Sasquatch themselves, their physical and mental endeavours in support of that goal, and how that reflects on their place in their communities (of many different types). It also deftly handles a range of associated issues - First Nations communities and land rights, environmental and commercial issues around logging and pipelines across Canada's northwest, humanity’s relationship with our environment and the wildlife in it, and the whole notion of how we as humans 'perceive' things in both our vision and psycho-mental capacities - that surround the whole question of Sasquatch's purported existence. In those senses, Zada trips continuously between an observer's perspective on others' obsessions or questions about Sasquatch, and his own struggle to find an answer - if one can ever be found - to why humans have recorded the existence of Sasquatch and its parallels in other geographies (Bigfoot, Yeti, etc.) for so long. Ultimately - and without giving anything away - Zada finds part of what he is looking for in the above, but also generates more questions than answers, for reasons he outlines in the concluding part of the book. In all of these senses, it would appear that some reviewers have misunderstood the perspective that the book aims to provide: the hunt for and obsession with Sasquatch that Zada observes and relates in many of the characters he meets throughout his odyssey is really a reflection on humanity's own struggle with perception, spirituality, connections to our planet and its ecosystem, and how different communities and individuals deal with stress, strife, loss and need. Zada has a wonderfully engaging writing style that, by the end of the book, really left me wanting more; I do hope that he turns his lens on another similarly engrossing topic, as I'd really love to join him on another journey in the future.

3 people found this helpful

aline chahine

An Epic Journey

Reviewed in Canada on September 30, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is truly a unique and remarkable book. It's a magical and powerfully rendered story of an epic journey into not just one of the most profound mysteries of the natural world, but also one of the most ethereal and mysterious landscapes on earth.

One person found this helpful

JL

A good read despite sasquatch not figuring greatly

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 18, 2020

Verified Purchase

I really enjoyed this book despite the fact that sasquatch really don't figure too much in the narrative. The setting in the Great Bear Rainforest makes up for the lack of new sasquatch info. Well written its a good read.

One person found this helpful

Hugh A. Mortimer

Quite a Search

Reviewed in Canada on March 24, 2020

Verified Purchase

The author writes about meetings with members of several First Nations, monsters, the patterns in his mind, and reflects on how they affect him. I enjoyed reading the book.

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the author

Image Unavailable

In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch Kindle Edition

Customers who bought this item also bought

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Review

About the Author

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Product details

Videos

About the author

John Zada

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries