The Beast in the Clouds

A New York Public Library Best Nonfiction Book of 2025 · A New York Times Book Review Critics’ Pick · A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2025 · Shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature

“A thrilling work of history that’s wilder than fiction.” —The Washington Post
“[An] immersive, sometimes harrowing account of the siblings’ Himalayan adventure.” —The New York Times

The stunning true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s sons and their 1929 Himalayan expedition to prove the existence of the panda bear to the western world, from the New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls.

The Himalayas—a snowcapped mountain range that hides treacherous glacier crossings, raiders poised to attack unsuspecting travellers, and air so thin that even seasoned explorers die of oxygen deprivation. Yet among the dangers lies one of the most beautiful and fragile ecosystems in the world.

By 1928, dozens of expeditions had scoured the Himalayas in search of the panda bear, an animal many believed to be a myth. That year, the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt and a small team of scientists and naturalists launched their own dangerous journey. Lost in blizzards, attacked by robbers, ravaged by illness, and cut off from food supplies, the brothers’ crew was pushed to its physical and emotional limits. They would accomplish what years of exploration had not—introducing the panda to the Western world. Along the way, they documented a rapidly disappearing landscape and helped bring about a new era of conservation biology.

In The Beast in the Clouds, Nathalia Holt brings these events to life in a gripping nonfiction thriller about ambition, survival, and the indomitable Roosevelt spirit.