Fuzz

When Nature Breaks the Law

By: Mary Roach

Narrated by: Mary Roach

One of Audible's Best of 2021

AudioFile Magazine's Best Audiobooks of 2021

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

#1 Los Angeles Times Bestseller

#1 Indie Hardcover Nonfiction Bestseller

A Washington Post and Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction Book of 2021

Longlisted for the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction

Join "America’s funniest science writer" (Peter Carlson, Washington Post), Mary Roach, on an irresistible investigation into the unpredictable world where wildlife and humans meet.

What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.

Roach tags along with animal-attack forensics investigators, human-elephant conflict specialists, bear managers, and "danger tree" faller blasters. Intrepid as ever, she travels from leopard-terrorized hamlets in the Indian Himalaya to St. Peter’s Square in the early hours before the pope arrives for Easter Mass, when vandal gulls swoop in to destroy the elaborate floral display. She taste-tests rat bait, learns how to install a vulture effigy, and gets mugged by a macaque.

Combining little-known forensic science and conservation genetics with a motley cast of laser scarecrows, langur impersonators, and trespassing squirrels, Roach reveals as much about humanity as about nature’s lawbreakers. When it comes to "problem" wildlife, she finds, humans are more often the problem - and the solution. Fascinating, witty, and humane, Fuzz offers hope for compassionate coexistence in our ever-expanding human habitat.

©2021 by Mary Roach. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Roach is an observant and witty writer with an eye for detail and a passion for facts. As it turns out, she is also a remarkably skilled narrator with a pleasant mid-range voice. She reads with verve, and her phrasing and pacing keep the text moving while enabling our laughter or stunned amazement. Roach also re-creates accents, conversations, and speech patterns like the best mimic. What a delightful and informative listen.” (AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award Winner)

"An idiosyncratic tour with Roach as the wisecracking, ever-probing guide... My favorite moments, ultimately, weren’t the funny ones, but those that reveal a bit of scientific poetry." (Vicki Constantine Croke, New York Times Book Review)

"Bestseller Roach sheds light on nature’s malefactors in this often funny, always provocative survey...Roach’s writing is wry, full of heart, and loaded with intriguing facts...This eminently entertaining outing is another winner from Roach." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Mary does it again!

this book was wonderfully written and researched. thank you for all your hard work Mary! You rock.

Another great book from my favorite author

As always Mary Roach makes learning about a new topic enjoyable. Weirdly, I didn’t love her narrating it. She was great but I’ve preferred other readers. Can’t wait to see what topic she covers next!!

Most recent of 4 Mary Roach books

I thoroughly enjoyed Fuzz.. as each of her other 3 I've read..
I like having the author narrate.. makes it much more authentic and brings me closer to the feel of the authors experience.
Only two notes from my side: Some pauses seemed a bit long.
And I prefer the notes in situe with their relevant context..
Looking forward to her next book.. in the mean time I'll go back and "read" the other 3 I've missed..
Thank you... love your dedication to the subject and your humor..

Another great one from Mary Roach

As always , funny, fascinating, and smart, and the author does a superb job narrating. Highly recommended!

Love by a professional Natural Resource Manager

Awesome! Easy to digest, hard to put down. It feels like having a conversation with a professional over drinks. They hit you with the technical stuff then dumb it down for you as a layperson. Science and silly. Fun from cover to cover. Over 7 years in environment science and natural resources, grad school for the stuff, and I learned a lot from this book. What I already knew, Mary Roach made it funnier. I'll reread this book. Put it on the same shelf as Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold.

Informative AND entertaining

We really enjoyed the writing style. Plenty of factual information but presented in an entertaining and often humorous way.

Very fun nerdy journalism, great voice

I love Mary Roach’s work and how she gets deeply nerdy about every topic she covers. She’s definitely on my “fantasy celebrity dinner party” list. She reads her own work well, which isn’t always true of authors as narrators.
My only complaint is that, given her name, you’d think she would have mentioned human/cockroach conflicts more than once ;)

Great listen!

I always enjoy May Roach's books and this one is no exception. My only suggestion is to include the footnotes in the body of the narration to keep them in context.

Fantastic but tough topic

I love all of Mary Roachs books and this one is equally well written but I had a much harder time listening to it than her others. Apparently conflict with animals bothers me more than decomposition of corpses. A hard read/listen but a good one. I appreciate her resources for humane critter control at the end.

Footnotes at the end

As others have noted, the footnotes were all played together at the end of the audiobook. This took some of Mary’s classic humor and fun away from the rest of the story.