<p><b>INSTANT <i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER</b><br><br><b>"If there''s one book you pick up this summer, make it this one." - <i>Washington Post</i></b><br><br><b>"A wise and intimate book about a solitary woman, a biologist by training, who befriends a fox." - </b><b> Yann Martel, author of <i>Life of Pi</i></b><br><br>Catherine Raven has lived alone since the age of 15. After finishing her PhD in biology, she built herself a tiny cottage on an isolated plot of land in Montana, in a place as far away from other people as possible. She viewed the house as a way station, a temporary rest stop where she could gather her nerves and fill out applications for what she hoped would be a real job that would help her fit into society.<br><br>Then one day she realises she has company: a mangy-looking fox who starts showing up at her house every afternoon at 4.15pm. She has never had a visitor before. How do you even talk to a fox? She brings out her camping chair, sits as close to him as she