When Winter Comes
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4.5 • 30개의 평가
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- US$9.99
출판사 설명
“Shannon’s harrowing debut brings humanity and empathy to the story of the Donner Party . . . [An] enduring and heartbreaking tale of survival.” —Publishers Weekly
Mrs. Jacob Klein has a husband, children, and a warm and comfortable home in California. No one—not even her family—knows how she came to be out West thirteen years ago. Jacob, a kind and patient man, has promised not to ask. But if she were to tell her story, she would recount a tale of tragedy, mishaps, and unthinkable choices—yet also sacrifice, courage, and a powerful, unexpected love . . .
1846: On the outskirts of Cincinnati, wagons gather by the hundreds, readying to head west to California. Among the throng is a fifteen-year-old girl eager to escape her abusive family. With just a few stolen dollars to her name, she enlists as helpmate to a married couple with a young daughter. Their group stays optimistic in the face of the journey’s hazards and delays. Then comes a decision that she is powerless to prevent: Instead of following the wagon train’s established route, the Donner Party will take a shortcut over the Sierras, aiming to clear the mountains before the first snows descend.
In the years since that infamous winter, other survivors have sold their accounts for notoriety and money, lurid tales often filled with half-truths or blatant, gory lies. Now, Mrs. Klein must decide whether to keep those bitter memories secret, or risk destroying the life she has endured so much to build . . .
“A story of great courage.” —Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Shannon's harrowing debut brings humanity and empathy to the story of the Donner Party, a group of pioneers who set out from Independence, Mo., for California in 1846, and were snowbound and forced to resort to cannibalism. It's been 13 years since Mrs. Jacob Klein ran away from her abusive family in Cincinnati at age 15 and joined up with the doomed wagon train bound for California. One of the survivors, Mrs. Klein, is now a schoolteacher married with three daughters, but she's never shared her story with her husband, Jacob. Incensed by sensationalist accounts, she uses her journal to tell the tale of her time as a helper to the much-vilified Kesebergs, the bonds she formed while on the trail, and the horror of finding themselves stranded in a snowy mountain pass with dwindling food supplies. The narrative alternates between Mrs. Klein's journal entries and her life as a wife and mother in California on the cusp of the Civil War. Shannon's absorbing, exhaustively researched (and fictionalized) account movingly captures the hope and fellowship of the families in the early days of the journey, making their grueling starvation and grim choices even more tragic. Shannon does not resort to salaciousness or gratuity, detailing only what is necessary to illustrate the events of this enduring and heartbreaking tale of survival.
사용자 리뷰
A page turner
I travel back and forth over the Donner past each year. The story of the party and tragedy well known. I found it hard to put this book down. The voice of the story starts out in pitiful conditions and makes the journey west hoping to find something better for herself. This a book of fiction, but so well written, it feels like a real tale.