Wolverine Tracks: On the Trail of Memory and Meaning in the Wild

by Dag O Hessen

For readers of John Vaillant’s The Tiger and Peter Matthiessen’s The Snow Leopard comes a personal exploration of one man’s search for an elusive animal, and the comfort of nature in a changing, uncertain world.

Fifty years after Dag O. Hessen encounters wolverine tracks on a ski trip with his father and follows them until they disappear down a steep passage, he’s back to search for the animal that escaped him. His father is long gone but the mountains are still there—and somewhere out there is a wolverine, an elusive creature of myth and mystery. In Hessen’s imagination, the wolverine is wilderness in animal form, representing everything lost to us in a nature that is being steadily reduced to a tame vestige of its former self. Wolverines have a reputation as vicious they’ve been known to kill a reindeer, bite its head off, and then hang it high up in a tree like a trophy. Yet wolverines can also be shy and playful, skidding down slopes and scaling mountain peaks for no apparent reason—perhaps, like humans, just to enjoy the view.

Over the course of a year, Hessen returns to the mountains in every season, but, since the passing of his father and sister, it’s no longer just a wolverine that he seeks. As Hessen walks and skis over peaks and valleys on the wolverine’s trail, spending his nights in silence with only the starry skies for company, he shares his biologist’s deep knowledge of flora and fauna through the changing seasons and in a changing climate. He also draws on literary explorations of humans and nature, wildness versus civilization, and, of course, wolverines, referencing writers including Thoreau, E. O. Wilson, Jon Krakauer, and Kerstin Ekman.

Wolverine Tracks is a story about time passing, about change and loss in nature and in Hessen’s own life. It’s also a book about what it means to be human in our tumultuous world, and the joy and power of being in nature.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Memoir

272 pages, Hardcover

Published November 4, 2025

Reviews

[Michael Doane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wolverine Tracks is a quiet, luminous meditation on memory, loss, and the enduring pull of wild places. Dag O. Hessen blends personal memoir, natural history, and philosophical reflection into a book that feels both intimate and expansive.

At its heart is a moment from childhood: a young boy following wolverine tracks alongside his father, only to lose them as they vanish into the mountains. Fifty years later, Hessen returns to those same landscapes, now shaped by grief and absence, searching not only for the elusive animal but for connection to memory, to nature, and to what endures as the world changes.

Hessen’s background as a biologist enriches the narrative without overwhelming it. His observations of flora, fauna, and seasonal shifts are precise and attentive, grounding the book in lived experience and scientific understanding. The wolverine itself emerges as both real creature and powerful symbol ferocious yet playful, hidden yet present, embodying a wilderness that resists full understanding or possession.

Woven throughout are thoughtful engagements with writers and thinkers who have wrestled with humanity’s relationship to the natural world. These reflections deepen the book’s central questions about wildness, civilization, and what it means to be human in an era of environmental uncertainty.

Wolverine Tracks is a book to be read slowly. It offers solace without sentimentality and insight without didacticism. Readers drawn to literary nature writing, contemplative memoir, and stories that honor both grief and wonder will find this work deeply rewarding.

[Melissa “littlemaybooks” · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is beautifully written and while it includes some great information about the elusive wolverine, it also includes information about nature and the environment as a whole. Hessen discusses the importance of nature and not only humans impact on nature, but nature’s impact on humans. It also includes great excerpts from some of Hessen’s favorite books regarding nature and wolverines which will provide readers with some extra reading material if interested.

It’s told with warmth and heart and from the perspective of someone who is not only a biologist, but from someone who’s been a hunter, an adventurer, and a life long nature lover with a deep connection to the area. I found it deeply immersive and had a hard time putting it down.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtfully written memoir both in terms of ecology and aging. I appreciated the natural history of the wolverine and also other fauna in the Norwegian forests and mountains. But what really turned out to be most meaningful for me were the reminiscences about exploring the outdoors with family and friends and thinking about how that has changed. I'm going through that now as family I traveled with are gone and friends are starting to age out of hiking, backpacking, and kayaking. It is a time filled with melancholy but also still an appreciation for getting out there as long as possible. There is a peace in that. I recommend this for those who found a peaceful solitude in nature.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd give this a 3.5 out of 5, but it would be closer to a 4 than a 3. Very interesting read, from his hopes of actually seeing a wolverine in the wild to his discussions of other writers (Thoreau, etc.), and many other related things from his own life history.

[James Easterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really beautifully written book about a man's life in the forests and mountains of Norway, and an ongoing investigation into the philosophy and values in life all while on a lifelong goal to track and see wolverines.