# The Leopard Is Loose - Hardcover

by **Stephen Harrigan** (Author)

**The fragile, 1952 postwar tranquility of a young boy's world explodes one summer day when a leopard escapes from the Oklahoma City zoo, throwing all the local residents into dangerous excitement, in this evocative story of a child's confrontation with his deepest fears**

For Grady McClarty, an ever-watchful but bewildered five-year-old boy, World War II is only a troubling, ungraspable event that occurred before he was born. But he feels its effects all around him. He and his older brother Danny are fatherless, and their mother, Bethie, is still grieving for her fighter-pilot husband. Most of all, Grady senses it in his two uncles: young combat veterans determined to step into a fatherhood role for their nephews, even as they struggle with the psychological scars they carry from the war.

When news breaks that a leopard has escaped from the Oklahoma City Zoo, the playthings and imagined fears of Grady's childhood begin to give way to real-world terrors, most imminently the dangerous jungle cat itself. _The Leopard Is Loose_ is a stunning encapsulation of America in the 1950s, and a moving portrait of a boy's struggle to find his place in the world.

### Author Biography

STEPHEN HARRIGAN is the author of the _New York Times_ best-selling _The Gates of the Alamo, Remember Ben Clayton_ (which, among other awards, won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize from the Society of American Historians for best historical novel), _Challenger Park, A Friend of Mr. Lincoln_, and _Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas_. He is a writer-at-large for _Texas Monthly,_ as well as a screenwriter who has written many movies for television. He lives in Austin, Texas.

**Number of Pages:** 256

**Dimensions:** 1.14 x 8.55 x 6.11 IN

**Publication Date:** January 18, 2022

## Details

- **Price:** 26.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 26.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- The Leopard Is Loose - Hardcover

---

> Source: [Smart supply deals](https://smartsupplydeals.com/products/the-leopard-is-loose-hardcover)
> Updated: 2026-07-23