The Bat House: A Montana Memoir

The Bat House: A Montana Memoir

When Michael Riley bought a 1917 farmhouse on the Yellowstone River fifteen miles from where he grew up, he had no idea what he was getting into. Much of what was in store for him wasn't exactly "a delight," including the presence of an enormous bat colony and decades of guano. But luckily for readers, this memoir chronicling reclaiming the house, evicting the bats, and contemplating the life that had led him to this property is absolutely a delight. While he deftly uses his bat nemesis as a central axis to this moving memoir, the book is a love story about a forty-plus year marriage to a remarkable woman, about decades of teaching inspiring (and challenging) students, about rivers and mountains and dogs and poker, about sobriety and acceptance, and yes, even about a love affair-of sorts-with bats. The book reveals the author's emotional life dealing with the trials of financial stress, his wife's cancer diagnosis, drought and flood, resolving a violent addictive past, and loss of venerable history. Acceptance arrives through learning the crucial role of bats in our ecosystem and the unexpected benefits of practicing yoga. "Riley's generous and elegant memoir of marriage and house-holding is ceaselessly instructive and unflinchingly celebratory of both. Read it. Then give it to someone you love." - Richard Ford "In a time when things seem to be falling apart everywhere, this story of restoration is a gift, reassuring in its affirmation of the human spirit. Many of the great themes of the American West are at play here - man against the wild, man against man, and man against himself; killing and nurture, numbness and vulnerability, isolation and connection." - Teresa Jordan, Buddhist chaplain and author of Riding the White Horse Home "Written in sharp, smart, precise prose that is charming and genuine even in the moments when Riley is gruff, skeptical, or philosophical, he proves exactly the sort of friend you wish you deserved, the teacher you wish you had, and the writer who you wish could accompany you everywhere. The Bat House swoops and dives with grace through beauty, despair, and wonder, and readers will find themselves as plagued by the changing world and their place in it just as Riley is plagued by bats and lifted by memories." - Mark Hummel, author of Man, Underground Mike Riley grew up along the Yellowstone River in eastern Montana. He has an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Montana and served as writer in residence for the Montana Arts Council and the Wyoming Arts Council. He taught English and Journalism in various places around the world before retiring in Cody, Wyoming.