Beyond the Bear: How I Learned to Live and Love Again after Being Blinded by a Bear
While fishing with a friend on a balmy July day in the Alaskan back country, Dan Bigley, a transplanted Californian and avowed nature enthusiast, was viciously mauled by a grizzly bear. After the bear  bit into his face and eye sockets, leaving him permanently blind, the emergency technicians and trauma surgeons who treated Bigley expected the worst. Yet, as described in this inspiring first-person account of the heroic measures undertaken to save his life, Bigley not only survived but today is thriving, with a growing family and a budding career counseling emotionally disturbed children. Bigley, with the assistance of coauthor McKinney, unflinchingly recounts the horrific details of the mauling and its aftermath, from the multiple grueling surgeries needed to reconstruct his face to the tribulations involved in adapting to life as a blind person. Perhaps the most moving part of his story, however, is his relationship with Amber, the woman he fell for the night before the attack, who has remained steadfast despite his early attempts to let her go. A well-written and touching tribute to human resilience. --Carl Hays