"A beautifully written and contrarian narrative about what it means to hunt in America today"--Provided by the publisher.

When Lily Raff McCaulou traded an indie film production career in New York for a reporting job in rural Oregon, she never imagined that she'd find herself picking up a gun and learning to hunt. She'd been raised as a gun-fearing environmentalist and an animal lover; and though a meat eater, she'd always abided by the principle that harming animals is wrong. But Raff McCaulou's perspective shifted when she began spending weekends fly-fishing and weekdays interviewing hunters for her articles, and realized that many of them were more thoughtful about animals and the environment than she was. She swallowed her fears and decided to learn to hunt. From attending a hunter safety course designed for children to field-dressing an elk and serving it for dinner, she explores the sport of hunting and all it entails. Confronting death and reconciling her guilt with the satisfaction of harvesting her own food, Raff McCaulou tackles the big questions surrounding one of the most controversial yet quintessentially American practices and pastimes.