India, April 11 -- In November 2023, Maya, one of the most beloved tigresses in Maharashtra's Tadoba-Andhari reserve, vanished. Her disappearance made news, and the many who had followed her life for years were left full of concern for what might have become of her. Born in 2010 and orphaned early, the tigress had grown up in the public eye, into an animal of striking composure. She hunted in the open, carried her kills past idling jeeps, and often paused before cameras as if aware of the admiration she elicited in humans. Her calm around people, her hold over a vast and contested territory, and her fierce care for her cubs took her story far beyond Tadoba's forest roads. In this deeply observed account, Anant Sonawane retraces her life, from precarious beginnings to the big cat's rise as a matriarch who moved with quiet assurance amid the human gaze. Clear-eyed and deeply attentive, Maya: The Biography of a Tiger offers an intimate portrait of a wild tiger seen up close, yet never reduced to distortion or myth....