From the #1 bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat comes an unforgettable epic of family, tragedy, and survival on the American frontier “An ideal pairing of talent and material.… Engrossing.… A deft and ambitious storyteller.” – Mary Roach, New York Times Book Review In April of 1846, twenty-one-year-old Sarah Graves, intent on a better future, set out west from Illinois with her new husband, her parents, and eight siblings. Seven months later, after joining a party of pioneers led by George Donner, they reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains as the first heavy snows of the season closed the pass ahead of them. In early December, starving and desperate, Sarah and fourteen others set out for California on snowshoes, and, over the next thirty-two days, endured almost unfathomable hardships and horrors. In this gripping narrative, New York Times bestselling author Daniel James Brown sheds new light on one of the most legendary events in American history. Following every painful footstep of Sarah’s journey with the Donner Party, Brown produces a tale both spellbinding and richly informative.

ダニエル・ジェームズ・ブラウンは、ドナー隊の悲劇という凄惨な歴史を、一人の女性の視点から血の通った叙事詩へと昇華させました。本作の白眉は、無慈悲な大自然の美しさと、極限状態で剥き出しになる人間の尊厳との鮮烈な対比にあります。著者の端正な筆致は、生存という名の深淵に潜む、残酷なまでの生の輝きを読者の脳裏に焼き付けます。 徹底した考証に基づき描かれる一歩一歩の苦難は、単なる記録を超え、人間の精神がいかに強靭で、同時に脆いものであるかを突きつけます。歴史の荒波に翻弄されながらも希望を捨てなかったサラの魂の叫びは、時代を超えて私たちの心に共鳴し、深い感銘を与えずにはいられません。これは絶望の果てに人間性の本質を照らし出す、至高のノンフィクションです。