The Leopard Is Loose, Stephen Harrigan
The Leopard Is Loose, Stephen Harrigan
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The Leopard Is Loose
A novel

Author: Stephen Harrigan

Narrator: George Guidall

Unabridged: 6 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/18/2022


Synopsis

The fragile, 1952 postwar tranquility of a young boy’s world explodes one summer day when a leopard escapes from the Oklahoma City zoo, throwing all the local residents into dangerous excitement, in this evocative story of a child’s confrontation with his deepest fears

For Grady McClarty, an ever-watchful but bewildered five-year-old boy, World War II is only a troubling, ungraspable event that occurred before he was born. But he feels its effects all around him. He and his older brother Danny are fatherless, and their mother, Bethie, is still grieving for her fighter-pilot husband. Most of all, Grady senses it in his two uncles: young combat veterans determined to step into a fatherhood role for their nephews, even as they struggle with the psychological scars they carry from the war.
 
When news breaks that a leopard has escaped from the Oklahoma City Zoo, the playthings and imagined fears of Grady’s childhood begin to give way to real-world terrors, most imminently the dangerous jungle cat itself. The Leopard Is Loose is a stunning encapsulation of America in the 1950s, and a moving portrait of a boy’s struggle to find his place in the world.

About The Author

STEPHEN HARRIGAN is the author of the New York Times best-selling The Gates of the Alamo, Remember Ben Clayton (which, among other awards, won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize from the Society of American Historians for best historical novel), Challenger Park, A Friend of Mr. Lincoln, and Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas. He is a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly, as well as a screenwriter who has written many movies for television. He lives in Austin, Texas.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Therese on March 26, 2022

This was a book club selection that I listened to on audio, narrated by George Guidall, which was fabulous. This selection reminds me of why I enjoy book clubs so much. Here’s a book and an author I knew nothing about, probably never would have picked up on my own, and was completely delighted by ho......more

Goodreads review by Candace on December 09, 2021

Grady McClarty is enjoying retirement from his car dealership in Midland, Texas, when a historian in Oklahoma City asks him for an oral history of the time when a leopard got loose from the city zoo in 1952. Only five at the time, Grady is one of the few people who remembers the terror and excitemen......more

Goodreads review by Erin on January 10, 2022

Harrigan, Stephen. The Leopard is Loose. digital. 2021. Penguin Random House Audio. Five year old, Grady McClarty, is about to have one of the most tumultuous and momentous summers of his young life. Post World War II Oklahoma City is fraught with racial tensions and a false sense of tranquility. Wh......more

Goodreads review by Katie on February 18, 2025

This book was the most Oklahoma City book ever and my Okie heart could not handle how much I loved it. Felt like To Kill a Mockingbird in places, overall a coming-of-age story of a young boy trying to understand life in the lens of the PTSD of his uncles who fought in WWII, the Civil Rights movement......more

Goodreads review by Lin on December 20, 2021

In Stephen Harrigan’s big-hearted coming-of-age novel, LEOPARD IS LOOSE, five-year-old Grady’s tranquil world is upended when a leopard escapes from the nearby zoo. It’s 1952 and Grady and his 7-year-old brother Danny live with their widowed mother, Bethie, in a two-bedroom backyard apartment across......more


Quotes

“Harrigan’s tale rings true . . . [The Leopard Is Loose] engagingly draws upon family lore, those dinner-table anecdotes beginning, ‘Do you remember…?’ . . . Harrigan deftly catches the flavorful sense of a place and time as witnessed by a child” —Joyce Sáenz Harris, The Dallas Morning News

“Taut and muscular. Not a word is wasted. . . [An] invaluable historical novel.” —Michael Barnes, Austin American-Statesman
 
“Absorbing . . . Depicts the terror sparked by the leopard’s escape, including scenes in which cars filled with gun-toting would-be game hunters raced down the city’s streets . . . The book also touches on some of the big issues of the time, including the psychological damage sustained by those who fought in World War II.” —Deborah Martin, San Antonio Express-News

“Really beautiful . . . about the fears seen and those unseen, like injustice and the emotions of coming back from war.” —Jenna Bush Hager, on Instagram

“Inspired by an actual incident, this mostly sweet-tempered tale [about] a wild cat on the loose in 1950’s Oklahoma City crystallizes a boy’s coming-or-age [in] a transitional time for his family. His father, a test pilot, has died; his mother is getting serious with a new man; and his two uncles are World War II veterans whose PTSD manifests itself in confusing ways . . . In  scenes that put anti-Black discrimination on display, he exposes the persistence of casual racism and how easily it descends into violence . . . Harrigan has a knack for grand-scale historical writing . . . and he engagingly inhabits his young hero’s mind [in] a likable, nostalgic yarn that explores how minor incidents can catalyze into bigger crises.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Deeply felt . . . plenty of heart. . . . Harrigan makes a welcome return to fiction with a story inspired by a leopard that escaped from the Oklahoma City Zoo in 1952. . . . Five-year-old Grady is an appealing narrator . . . and Harrigan elegantly conveys the strength of family bonds.” Publishers Weekly

“Captivating . . . Things come to a head when the uncles, with [nephews] Grady and Danny in the back seat, set off in Frank’s car to find the leopard. They will find more, much more, than they anticipate.” —Michael Cart, Booklist

“Harrigan vividly recreates 1950s Oklahoma City with a fine eye for historical detail using a spare writing style reminiscent of Kent Haruf . . . Harrigan’s novelistic time machine with its complicated and compelling characters will engage a wide array of readers.” Library Journal