The Tiger

Why it’s on the list: Vaillant’s account of a man-eating Amur tiger in the Russian Far East, and of the post-Soviet frontier economy of poaching and timber that put the animal and the men in the same forest.

Ambiguity: the thread asked for historical fiction and this is a work of non-fiction, so the identification is not certain. Vaillant’s 2010 book is by far the best-known title matching the bare line Kyle saved.

Where I saw it: In the reply thread to @moseskagan’s question, “What historical fiction should I read next? (Bonus points for something involving building or trade, rather than violence)” (April 13, 2025) — a crowd-sourced list Kyle recovered by hand and saved to his Apple Note “Books To Read”; the full set of replies lives on What historical fiction should I… (tweet). It was listed there as “The Tiger”.

Connections

• Russia — The Primorye territory where it is set.
• Frontier — The post-Soviet borderland economy the book describes.
• What historical fiction should I… (tweet) — the thread this recommendation came from.