The germ of the idea for this story came from a friend who journeyed to Kamchatka, Siberia several years ago to hunt the brown bear. Once there he was swindled out of his money and was lucky to get out with his life. He shot no bear. This novel, Trophies, is about a Viet Nam vet in his fifties who has lived to hunt most of his life, but is beginning to doubt his need to kill and hang animals on his walls. In this trip to Russia, he sees a chance to test this change with a chance to kill the greatest trophy, the brown bear. Once there he becomes embroiled in a society that is undergoing catastrophic changes. He meets a Russian guide who is a former Spetsnaz officer and closely parallels his own military experiences, but in Aghanistan, Russia's Viet Nam. All through the hunt these two alternately clash and come closer to each other until an event, which demonstrates that both have changed. The American makes the break with his known life in the U.S. and flies with the Russian to a Siberian Tiger Project outpost across the Sea of Okhotsk. There he meets the guide's older sister who is working within the tiger program. He becomes further involved with the Russian Environmental Movement as they attempt to stop the decimation of the tiger and its habitat in Siberia as his interests now broaden to a love for the sister of his friend. In the end, they are able to effect changes in the Russia of today that they would not have imagined were possible.