Hungry Moon — Ruth Francisco

In 2003, an amateur naturalist and self-proclaimed protector of the grizzly bear traveled to Kaflia Bay in Alaska to live with the grizzlies for three months. His girlfriend joined him. On October 6, the mangled remains of their bodies were found eaten by a grizzly.

What happened exactly? Why would any man be so foolish as to try to live with wild grizzly bears? Why would a woman follow him? Why would they stay beyond a time when any sane person would have left? When the only grizzlies not headed toward their winter dens are insatiably hungry. Mean old bears. Aggressive bears.

Told from three perspectives -- man, woman, and bear -- this fictionalized account of historical events takes the story into the realm of mythology to explore our most essential fears, and our most elemental drive -- hunger. Man hungers for purpose, hungers for fame, hungers for God. Woman hungers for romantic love, for a love that will give her life meaning. What happens if the Man mistakes the grizzly for God, if the Woman mistakes the Man for her white knight?

The grizzly allows no such mistakes. The grizzly knows only the hunger in its belly.