We Bought a Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken Down Zoo, and the 200 Wild Animals That Change Their Lives Forever by Benjamin Mee; Unabridged MP3 Audio Book; Narrator Gildart Jackson

Already a BBC documentary miniseries and excerpted in the Guardian, We Bought a Zoo is a profoundly moving portrait of an unforgettable family living in the most extraordinary circumstances. This touching memoir is set to be a major motion picture starring Scarlett Johansson and Matt Damon, in theaters December 23, 2011.

When Benjamin Mee decided to uproot his family and move them to an unlikely new home—a dilapidated zoo in the English countryside where over two hundred exotic animals would be their new neighbors—his friends and colleagues thought he was crazy. But Mee’s dream was to refurbish the zoo and run it as a family business. So in 2006, Mee, his wife and two children, his brother, and his seventy-six-year-old mother moved into the Dartmoor Wildlife Park. Their extended family now included: Solomon, an African lion and scourge of the local golf course; Zak, the rickety alpha wolf, a broadly benevolent dictator clinging to power; Ronnie, a Brazilian tapir, easily capable of killing a man but hopelessly soppy; and Sovereign, a jaguar and would-be ninja, who devised a long-term escape plan and implemented it.

The grand reopening was scheduled for spring, but there was much work to be done and none of it easy for these novice zookeepers. Tigers broke loose, money was tight, the staff grew skeptical, and family tensions reached a boiling point.

Then tragedy struck. Katherine Mee, Benjamin’s wife, had a recurrence of a brain tumor, forcing Benjamin and his two young children to face the heartbreak of illness and the devastating loss of a wife and mother. Inspired by the memory of Katherine and the healing power of the incredible family of animals they had grown to love, Benjamin and his kids resolved to move forward. Today the zoo is a thriving success.

“Charming throughout, and touching as well.”—New York Daily News

“A book for any animal lover.”—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“What a great story…definitely the stuff of dreams.”—London Free Press

“Fascinating…Moving, funny, and informative, [Mee’s] memoir is an amazing read.”—Winnipeg Sun

“Touching…Humorous…This engaging adventure will appeal to animal lovers.”—Library Journal

“Mee writes movingly about his wife’s fatal illness, his children coming to terms with this, his sprightly old mum, and, of course, his two hundred wild animals in all their diverse glory.”—Daily Mail (UK)

“The emotional appeal of the zoo’s rescue is wonderfully limned in Mee’s practical, good-humored prose.”—Booklist

“The process of getting to know the park’s two hundred animals, from flamingoes and monkeys to wolves, lions, bears, and jaguars, and of securing their care in the best possible captive environment, provided many heartwarming and heartbreaking moments…Replete with wry British perspective and facile rendering of the sights, sounds, and smells only zoos can provide.”—Kirkus Reviews

Benjamin Mee, a former newspaper columnist, has spent the last ten years studying animal behavior.

Gildart Jackson With acting credits that span stage and screen, Gildart Jackson is most often recognized for his role as Gideon on Charmed. Other notable TV roles include Jackson Palmer on Providence and Simon Prentiss on General Hospital, as well as guest appearances on Stargate: Atlantis, Las Vegas, and CSI. Theater roles include Trigorin in The Seagull, Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, and Adrian in Private Eyes at the Old Globe.