Working Fire: The Making of a Fireman

Zac Unger didn’t feel like much of a fireman at first. Most of his fellow recruits seemed to have planned for the job all their lives; he was an Ivy League grad responding to an ad at a bus stop. He couldn’t keep his boots shined, and he looked terrible in his uniform. Working Fire is the story of how, from this unlikely beginning, Zac Unger came to feel at home among this close-knit tribe, came to master his work’s demands, and came to know what it is to see the world through a firefighter’s eyes. From the raw material of his days’ work—alarm calls both harrowing and hilarious, moments of triumph and grief—Unger has forged a timeless story of finding one’s path, and a rousing adventure about the bravery and sacrifice of everyday heroes.
On the web: http://www.zacunger.com

Literature & Fiction

Unger, Zac

Dramas & Plays

Penguin Publishing Group

“I like to go out for walks, but it’s a little awkward to push the baby stroller and carry a shotgun at the same time.”—housewife from Churchill, Manitoba
 Yes, welcome to Churchill, Manitoba. Year-round human population: 943. Yet despite the isolation and the searing cold here at the arctic’s edge, visitors from around the globe flock to the town every fall, driven by a single purpose: to see polar bears in the wild.
Churchill is “The Polar Bear Capital of the World,” and for one unforgettable “bear season,” Zac Unger, his wife, and his three children moved from Oakland, California, to make it their temporary home. But they soon discovered that it’s really the polar bears who are at home in Churchill, roaming past the coffee shop on the main drag, peering into garbage cans, languorously scratching their backs against fence posts and front doorways. Where kids in other towns receive admonitions about talking to strangers, Churchill schoolchildren get “Let’s All Be Bear Aware” booklets to bring home. (Lesson number 8: Never explore bad-smelling areas.)
Zac Unger takes readers on a spirited and often wildly funny journey to a place as unique as it is remote, a place where natives, tourists, scientists, conservationists, and the most ferocious predators on the planet converge. In the process he becomes embroiled in the controversy surrounding “polar bear science”—and finds out that some of what we’ve been led to believe about the bears’ imminent extinction may not be quite the case. But mostly what he learns is about human behavior in extreme situations . . . and also why you should never even think of looking a polar bear in the eye.

Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye: A Family Field Trip to the Arctic's Edge in Search of Adventure, Truth, and Mini-Marshmallows

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

Da Capo Press

A compelling and moving memoir chronicles one man's journey from Ivy League graduate to dedicated firefighter and paramedic, discussing his training, the mpments of triumph and tragedy, the harrowing and hilarious calls, his fierce passion for his work, and the camraderie that exists among his comrades.

Working Fire: The Making of an Accidental Fireman

Penguin Press HC, The

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Unger, Zac. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Unger, Zac