THE EAGLE HUNTRESS

The Mongolian teen whose surprising 2014 win at the Golden Eagle Festival was charted in a 2016 documentary retells the story, expanding on her family’s nomadic Kazakh culture and the changes success has brought.

Nurgaiv’s grandfather and others secretly maintained the ancient Kazakh tradition of hunting with eagles, banned in Soviet-era Mongolia, teaching it to their sons. Watching their father teach her brother, Nurgaiv—calm, competitive, athletic—longed to learn herself. Nine years younger, born after many failed pregnancies, she was literally raised with eagles. She relates how she persuaded her parents, found her eaglet, trained and hunted with her, and entered and won the competition. Interwoven with this account is the story of a changing Mongolia amid a changing world. Before Nurgaiv’s training began, tourists—trekkers, journalists, photographers, a filmmaker—came to observe her family, whose livelihood derived in part from their visits. Each milestone on Nurgaiv’s eagle-huntress journey has been documented and shaped, as here, for an audience of outsiders. (Responding to past critiques, Nurgaiv here acknowledges that women eagle hunters competed in Kazakhstan before she did and downplays male opposition she faced.) Mediated by Welch and in translation, Nurgaiv’s voice is inconsistent. While expressions of clichéd adolescent excitement over her celebrity status feel somewhat manufactured, Nurgaiv’s love for and pride in her homeland, culture, and family come through with quiet, persuasive power.

An intriguing memoir from a girl who’s become a cultural icon.