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 ReviewIn April of 1846, twenty-one-year-old Sarah Graves, intent on a better future, set out west from Illinois with her new husband, … 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.
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An easy read. And yet an incredibly difficult read. The detail gathered by the author is impressive and really helps bring the world at the time the Donner Party tragedy come alive. It’s amazing what the survivors endured. I can honestly say I don’t know I would’ve wanted to live that much. I highly recommend this book!
I have to admit this, and it is sad, but I had never heard of the Donners until 1992. By that time, I had been teaching several years, and I was still living at home with my parents in this small, Texas town, when Ric Burns’ production for American Experience: The Donner Party came on ch. 13. My Mom, an historian herself, made a joke, and I …
I’ve read several books on the Donner Party. This was the best one so far. The facts about what actually happened are really a mystery to us. The author has in depth historical details about the climate, land, food, transportation, etc that they used on their 1500 mile trip west. That was what made it a great read for me. I was able to put the …
Loved, loved, loved this book! Once I started it I could not put it down! The author did so much research on the Donner party and it showed in this book. This is not a dry account of the Donner Party, nor is it the typical telling of the tragedy in the Sierras. This book starts at the beginning of their travels and explains what was going on …
Caution: this book is graphic! It is a thorough treatment of the horrors experienced by the Donner party. Well researched, but not for the faint of heart or stomach.
Having grown up on the west coast (in fact, a considerable portion of my life was spent in northern California), the story of the Donner Party is one long known to me — or so I thought. It’s wonderful to be given this deep dive into the actual story of the tragic event with so much emphasis on the people subjected to so savage an ordeal as well …
Daniel Brown is a wonderful historical writer. In THE INDIFFERENT STARS ABOVE he recreates the world that led people to leave everything they know and undertake the dangerous, uncertain trek across 1/2 the country to the West. We get to know the members of the ill-fated Donner Party, what lay behind their fateful choices, how they coped with that …
I was unaware of the “Donner Party” .
Real information told in a story.
Like nonfiction books
Travel with the Donner Party of pioneers as they make their way west. This is a gripping story of the brave but ill-fated folks who braved the wild to reach for a better future. Recommended time considerations and other missteps along the way placed the travelers on insurmountable paths during extreme weather conditions, which lead to heartache …
An unexpected fabulous book! Everyone I’ve recommended it to has also loved it
The story of what happened to the Donner party was very interesting, as I grew up completely misunderstanding what had occurred. I felt that some parts of this story could not be classified as nonfiction, which is why I only rated it 3.
It is impressive how Daniel James Brown infuses his books with snippets of science, such as how farmers planted their crops, how a person starves to death, etc., and how much that adds to the narrative story itself.
This is a meticulously researched and beautifully written account of life on the Oregon/California trails, and I would love to share it with my students…except for the other part. Brown handles the horror and tragedy with unvarnished and respectful simplicity, absent the salaciousness that one might expect of such a tale. The final third of the …
Deeply disturbing but informative
DJB paint’s with his words.
This author can write a book!!! I was fascinated from the first page. Could hardly put it down. A true story or people that overcame tremendous obstacles!!
The Donner story is one of tragedy and inspiration. The party that went the “wrong way” and ended up in such a hopeless situation was haunting. However, one could only guess if we were in their place with the information they were given, would we have followed them? God bless them all!
The book involves the reader in a horrific tragedy of American westward expansion.
No, this book is not about cannibalism. It is about survival, and yes some Donner Party people lived to way beyond 80. One had three husbands after the harrowing saga. It is a story of hardship, tragedy, stupidity, misunderstanding, heroism. Well worth your time to read.
A series of bad decisions. terrible weather and the selfish greed of many people led to this terrible tragedy. well written but hard to read much at a sitting. very hard to think of the children having to suffer so horribly.