Ultimately, this was not the book for me, but it may be a book for others.
written in an academic style and is well organized, edited, and annotated. If you have a Cryptid lover on your holiday gift list, this might be a winner for them!

For me, I was brought back to my college days of thesis writing, and found that maybe, I wasn’t wanting to delve into every possible topic surrounding the flora and fauna of Sumba, , I discovered in about chapter 4 or so that I felt like I was doing some sort of supplemental reading for a class my University was requiring me to take for graduation rather than a wild tale of hunting down a possible living wild man on a small island,

The book is well written, very educational and contains interesting information,

This was a fascinating read. A vast book, covering so many interesting things, I was glued to the pages. Although nonfiction, at times I felt as if I was reading an adventure story of years gone by, all the detail of the landscape and science mixing with folklore made the edges of reality blur a bit. And that’s what was so captivating and suspenseful about this book- rarely do you get a nonfiction science novel that’s truly a page turner where you’re waiting for the ending, but here’s one!

I learned so much about island ecology and evolution. I have a fairly good background understanding of prehistory, biology, and geology and I do think that that really helped me dive into this book. But Turvey does a fantastic job explaining scientific concepts and gives historical context in an engaging way so don’t let unfamiliar subject material stop you.

I love fossils. I love paleontology. I love folklore. I previously have read The First Fossil Hunters by Adrienne Mayor, a book about the Ancient Greek and Roman relationship to fossils, and this was a great addition to that category of books. We get fossils, we get folklore, and we get possibilities of how the two are linked. Folk memory of extinct creatures by indigenous groups is something I’ve never thought about before, but is so fascinating. We get a wonderful glimpse into worldwide folklore and where it could have come for, discussion over whether it’s important to even know, and a good look at what it really means to be human.

This is also a devastating look into the science of extinction, and especially the impacts of human settling and later European colonization, on island nations. “We are in a biocultural diversity crisis,” Turvey says in his conclusion. We are at a time of ecosystem collapse and the loss of huge amounts of language and culture as globalization becomes mainstream. This book is so well written, and really tugs at the heartstrings.

Do we find a mili mongga? I’ll let you read and find out. I highly recommend this book.

Samuel Turvey did a fantastic job in writing this, it had everything that I was looking for from this type of book. It had the historical feel that I was looking for from fossils. It had that mystery element perfectly and I wanted them to find the 'mili mongga.'

Sam Turvey is part of a group of scientists that study the diversity of flora and fauna. One of their pet projects is to go to out of the way area (in this case an island in East Indonesia) that may have distinct species that have been preserved over centuries (or longer) because they have no native predators.

The Island of Sumba, is at the eastern end of the Indonesian chain of islands and is difficult to get to and off the usual tract for hunters and people. Just landing on the island can be perilous though the natives are usual helpful and friendly.

nn the island of Sumba they travel up into the highlands where they keep hearing stories about the Mili Mongga. They hear stories told to them by elders who heard stories from their elders about this helpful creature. Except for some very old natives, mostly the tales they hear are second hand.

Natives say they know where a Mili Mongga was burried by a relative years ago. They agree to take Turvey and his group to the place, but there aren't and odd skeletons or bones. It like when everyone tells you about a great fishing spot, but when you get there you find nothing. Everyone there says you should have been here yesterday, the fish were jumping into the boat.

So Turvey's is the story of they were here and now their gone but we just can't remember the exact spot to find them.

Travelogues about scientific fieldwork have the same appeal for me as mystery novels do for fiction fans. I like them because they always tell entertaining stories, are often funny, and can also teach you a lot.

You will find plenty of all this in "The Tomb of Mili Mongga" - Samuel Turvey is a wonderful guide to the Indonesian island of Sumba. He comes across as a very warm, considerate person, with an eye for humorous detail, as in this example: „It was a relief to land, as the local airline names and logos hadn’t filled me with confidence: ‘We strive to succeed!’ ‘Flying is cheap.’ ‘We make you fly.’ And we definitely hadn’t wanted to travel with Icarus Air.”

But there is much more here than scientific adventure. For the author, the colorful recollections of his expeditions are only the starting point for a deep dive into disciplines as diverse as island biogeography, species extinction, cryptozoology, and folklore, to name just a few. The result is a fascinating volume written in a similar vein as Elizabeth Kolbert’s or David Quammen’s books - and mind you, they are writers, not active scientists like Turvey. This makes him a creature almost as rare as the mili mongga.

Here is another short quote: “The existence of endemic human species on islands brings home the fact that we are just another animal that adapts to local environmental conditions, with an evolutionary tree that radiates and branches in response to ecological and geographic barriers just like we see in other non-human species. The hobbit reminds us forcibly that we are not divorced from the natural world; instead, we are dependent upon nature and fundamentally shaped by it.”

His search for an Indonesian wildman resonated even more deeply with me after reading two interesting books on Bigfoot recently - it is extraordinary that such different cultures create such similar myths and legends.

And it is also an urgent call to save the richness of our planet. As Turvey writes towards the end: “The same processes of globalisation that are driving the loss of global cultural diversity are also responsible for much of the world’s ongoing biodiversity loss, thanks to worldwide demand for tropical timber; the clearance of rainforests to make room for rubber and oil palm plantations and mineral extraction; the unsustainable demand for threatened wildlife species from traditional Chinese medicine, the luxury food market and other commercial drivers; and increased opportunities for accidental transport of invasive species and pathogens. So, as we move ever closer to becoming a unified ‘global village’, the path we’re travelling is bringing about the destruction of global biodiversity, the traditional cultures that live alongside nature, and their unique ways of thinking and perceiving reality. We are in a biocultural diversity crisis”.

Many thanks to the publisher, Bloomsbury Sigma, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Loooooved this. Part travel memoir, part scientific survey, part archive of Indigenous folklore.

Throughout his hunt for fossils of extinct animals/hominids on the Indonesian island of Sumba, Turvey is constantly met with stories of the mili mongga - an ape-like creature discussed in the lore of seemingly every one of the island's villages. Turvey's paleontological research, and the stories of the mili mongga, provide a great starting point for a deeper exploration of the relationship between Indigenous oral tradition and biological/evolutionary history. The writing was straight-forward, compelling, and at times, surprisingly funny. I appreciated Turvey's balance of simplicity and depth - his explanations of even the most complex scientific processes were thoughtful and clear, but he never came across as patronizing.

Thank you to Bloomsbury for providing me an advance copy ahead of publication, in exchange for my honest review.

Samuel Turvey, Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Conservation Biology at the Zoological Society of London, was on a fossil expedition on the Indonesian island of Sumba when repeated reports of a legendary “wildman of the jungle”, the mili mongga, demanded his attention. It seems that everywhere his research group travelled, they encountered people who had stories about their village’s past encounters with these hairy giants, and repeatedly, his group would follow these leads into the unknown. The Tomb of the Mili Mongga is the account of several of Turvey’s expeditions to Sumba: part travelogue, part lab report, part social commentary, this book is as much about what a people’s mythology says about them as it is the story of what Turvey actually discovered, and I found the whole thing to be fascinating. Exactly my jam.