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A Common Fate, like Fire Under the Sea, is written in a style that's sometimes called a non-fiction novel. A characteristic of the style is that real people are characters in the book, and showing their internal life -- their motivations, thoughts, dreams, ambitions -- reveals their depth, in a way that more conventional journalistic reporting can not.
The selections I've recorded are essentially profiles of three of the main characters of the book, the fish biologist Gordon Reeves, the wild fish advocate Bill Bakke, and the Indian leader Ted Strong.
I had been aware of the emerging crisis over endangered salmon for more than a decade, largely because of my position as science writer with Oregon Sea Grant at Oregon State University. So I was very pleased that A Common Fate was the first book to focus on the endangered salmon problem in the 1990s.
It was always my thought that "saving" salmon in the Northwest was a test case for endangered species throughout the world, which is certainly a major issue for the 21st century. If it couldn't be done here, the chances for saving most endangered species must probably be reckoned as grim. I wanted to explore the issues with the book.
More information about A Common Fate can be found at the publisher's web site:
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/press/c-d/common.htm
Note that the audio files are quite large (3-6 MB) and that it may take a minute or so for them to download, depending on the speed of your connection. I appreciate your patience and trust that the wait will be rewarded.
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