Reese Witherspoon’s latest book club pick is Nemonte Nenquimo and Mitch Anderson’s We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People.
Nenquimo and Anderson’s book, published last month by Abrams, tells the story of Nenquimo’s upbringing in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. A member of the Indigenous Waorani people, she left the rainforest at the age of 14 and later returned after being visited by ancestors in her dreams. Nenquimo, along with Anderson, her husband, have been outspoken activists working to stop climate change. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus praised the book as “an essential memoir of Indigenous resistance to economic subjugation and cultural extinction.”
Witherspoon announced the book’s selection on Instagram, calling it “an unforgettable memoir about fighting for your home and your heart.”
In a video accompanying the post, Witherspoon reads a passage from the book’s introduction: “For us, stories are living beings. They breathe life into our homes, into our forests. They pulse in our blood, in our dreams. They stalk us like jaguars, clack like peccary, sail like macaws, run like fish. They are powerful beings. Like rainbows, they bring peace. Like lightning, they bring war. And they are always changing. That’s how we know that they are alive. A story dies when no one tells it.”
“Isn’t that amazing?” Witherspoon says. “It’s really beautiful.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
