Paul Rosalie is breaking stereotypes of being a successful author, proving that writing one book doesn’t cut it. Although his recently published novel “The Girl and the Tiger” has been victorious, he also is a filmmaker, environmentalist, and speaker.
Growing up in Brooklyn, the pigeons did not satisfy Rosalie’s love for animals, so he moved to Brazil. He spends his time preserving the Amazon Jungle—his muse. His vast experiences with animals have been translated into the book, highlighting the consequences of man’s greed.
His love for the jungle lives throughout the pages while using the perspective of Isha, a girl living in India. She stumbles upon a Bangle Tiger, as any young girl does, and finds purpose in saving her new companion.
In light of the recent fires in Australia, the book has breathed new life into the current conversation of global warming and conservation. Koalas and other animals are sprawled across the web as their homes are destroyed by hungry flames.
The fires in the Amazon caused parallel destruction to untouched habitats. People are scared of the unknown, and Rosalie continues to break this barrier with “The Girl and the Tiger”. The reader is thrown into the mind of a distracted young girl, but also the tiger.
I never fathomed what the mind of a tiger would look like. If anything, I picture vicious thoughts fueled by predatory hunger. Instead, I read the wonders of a creature who saw Isha as a ‘cub’, both curious of their surroundings.
The story is vivid in detail with words creating a colorful world in the reader’s mind. There are dozens of books that have tried to put the vast jungles into words, but none compare to the imagery that fuels Paul Rosalie’s success.
The writing style of the book might be an acquired taste. Prepare yourself for a lot of descriptive words and scene-setting. Knowing Paul Rosalie as an environmental activist before reading the book helped me understand why his writing is centered around the jungle and animals.
“There’s a big, beautiful wide-open wilderness, It’s like the way the world is supposed to be,” he said in an interview with KTLA. His conservation efforts are his main platform, but his love for the wild goes further than writing novels.
Paul Rosalie does not shy away from a challenge outside of writing a book. Most people pale at the sight of a garter snake. In a Discovery Documentary Paul Rosalie wore a ‘snake-proof’ suit and got eaten alive by the massive Anaconda snake.
The Green Anaconda is the king of snakes and National Geographic claims that at 500 pounds, it wins the title of the heaviest snake. Imagine the weight of two refrigerators crushing you without vision or hearing, not the ideal situation for most human beings.
“It was like being stuck on a wave,” he said.
Being eaten by a snake and writing novels are just a few ways that Paul Rosalie grabs the world’s attention about habitat conservation. His challenge to other authors? Don’t limit yourself to only writing.
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