Two sisters bravery in the face of extreme physical adversity is lyrically and touchingly told in this story of survival in the Alaskan wilderness long, long ago. When a stranger comes to Millie and Maura’s small community he warns of death sweeping down the valley. Soon Millie and Maura’s parents along with everyone else in their community are stricken by the mystery illness. Escaping wolves and an unreliable man who befriends them, the two girls discover their inner strengths as they pit their wits against the elements and struggle on until they find a place where people have survived.
Lovereading comment:
This is an extraordinary story of courage, commitment and survival of two young sisters in the harsh snowy Alaskan wilderness as they try to save themselves and in doing so, save each other. Beautifully written, this novel is inspired by the true story of the effect that European settlers had on Alaska, bringing with them as they did all manner of diseases, which the Natives had no immunity from. In some instances whole villages died out and to some, generations later, the period is still referred to as the Great Death. As the youngsters load up a raft to take them away from the death in their village their epic journey begins to find a new home.
The author’s first novel The Trap is one of the most haunting novels we’ve read and was hugely well-received on first publication.
The visitors from downriver had strange pale skin and blue eyes, but they left a deadly sickness of red spots and fever. Thirteen-year-old Millie and her younger sister Maura were the only survivors. As the first snowflakes fell the dogs were turning wild, and it was clear that the two girls must leave to find a new home. They loaded up a raft to take them away, and so began an epic journey through the harsh snowy landscape. This is an extraordinary story of courage, commitment and survival.
John E. Smelcer was born in 1963, and is of Ahtna Athabaskan Indian
descent. Currently the Executive Director of the Ahtna Tribe's Heritage
Foundation, he has held visiting professorships at universities around
the world. He earned a doctorate in comparative literature in 1993 and
a masters degree in literature and humanities in 1991. He is faculty at
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
His work appears in
numerous international anthologies by the likes of Random House, Dover,
and American Indian Press. In 1994 he edited Durable Breath: Contemporary Native American Poetry (Salmon Run & American Indian Press). His poems have appeared in
such periodicals as The Atlantic Monthly, and he is poetry editor at
Rosebud, among the nation's most prestigious quarterlies of poetry and
fiction.
