Friday, May 21, 2010

Into The Wilderness

                                                                                                                                                                   For the last week I have been reading Sara Donati's huge book, Into The Wilderness. I first read it about 10 years ago and I'm enjoying revisiting the characters. The story begins in 1792 when Elizabeth Middleton, an English lady who is proud to call herself a spinster, travels to her fathers home in America. He lives in Paradise, a small mountain village, set in the wilderness of New York territory.

Before she even reaches her father's house she meets Nathaniel Bonner. A mountain man, who is more comfortable amongst the Mohawk than the white settlers. Elizabeth's father wishes her to marry the doctor, but she elopes with Nathaniel, and the adventure begins.

From land tussles over Wolf Mountain, the home of Nathaniel and his extended Mohawk  family, to dangerous escapades through the wilderness, this is a real page turner.

There is a large cast of intriguing characters, including a brief appearance by Jamie and Claire Fraser, from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. The Mohawk people are especially well written; their culture and language expertly woven into the story.

I'm hoping to finish it this weekend. Then it's on to the next book in my large pile of 'to be read'.

3 comments:

  1. Sounds intriguing. I'm still trudging though Elizabeth Chadwick's The Greatest Night. All the writing and sleeping I'm doing is slowing my progress through it's pages. I too have multiple books calling to me for my TBR pile, thanks to my weekly library trip.

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  2. Is it ten years! I bought her book when it first landed on the shop shelves in NZ and guess what, I haven't read it. I like your succint review and just wish I had more time to squeeze it in. Enjoy your reading weekend.

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  3. What I forgot to add is that the book is followed by five other books. Most of them as long as the first. I'm aiming to read them all, but will fit in other books between them.

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