Friday Book Report: Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati

Sara Donati’s novel, Into the Wilderness is the start of an epic saga about one woman discovering that the life she fought so hard to obtain in not exactly the life that she needed.  It is a compelling story of love and the willingness and resolve to achieve those unknown dreams inside each of us.  Into the Wilderness was published in 1998 by Random House Publishing Group.

In December of 1792, twenty-nine year old Elizabeth Middleton has just left the comforts of her English estate with her brother to join their father in an isolated village in upstate New York called Paradise.  Elizabeth is content as a spinster, and has dreams of opening up a school to teach the children of Paradise.  The secluded village in the wild forests of New York is like nothing she has ever seen before.  Her first day in Paradise, she meets a man unlike any she’s ever encountered.  Nathaniel Bonner is a white man that dresses like a Native American.  Known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives, he was raised by his father and the Mohawk Nation in the area.  After meeting Nathaniel, Elizabeth must confront the idea that perhaps teaching school is not the only reason she has traveled to the far and distant land. 

Determined to start the school her father promised upon her arrival in Paradise, Elizabeth didn’t realize how many obstacles there would be.  She wasn’t counting on her father’s scheming or the appearance of Richard Todd, the doctor of Paradise.  Without her knowledge, her father and Todd have come to an agreement that Todd would marry Elizabeth and in turn inherit the vast amount of land that Alfred Middleton has acquired.  Richard Todd’s sole purpose for marrying Elizabeth is to obtain Hidden Wolf, the Mountain where Nathaniel and his family have resided for 30 or more years.  Todd wants the Bonners and the Mohawk off the mountain, and he goes to great lengths to achieve this goal.  And so begins this captivating tale that takes Elizabeth through the wilderness of New York and Canada to fight for what she believes is right and to seize not just the goal she’s always had, but also the dream that she never thought possible.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  Donati combines the history of 18^th Century America with a lot of wonderful storytelling to create an intricate and inspired historical fiction.  There is a lot going on in this book, but every storyline-no matter how big or small-seems to have a place and a reason for occurring in this novel.  Donati’s writing is beautifully done, and she sweeps you away into the wilderness of an emerging America.  She provides ample detail and description when needed, but pulls back and gets to the point when necessary.  It’s a rare gift for an author to realize when to be descriptive and when to be blunt.  Oftentimes I’ve read many books where the author illustrates too much and loses focus on the story, or an author will be too blunt and you never get into the feel of the characters or the story.  I never felt that way while reading this book.  My only real grudge is the ending and how certain storylines that took up the entire book where seemingly resolved too quickly to make room for more plotlines.  This is the first book in the “Wilderness” series, and it’s quite evident at the end with the emergence of the second books storyline.  I think I would’ve preferred to have left that bit for the second book only and let this first book finish in more depth what it started.  But having said that, Donati does merge the two stories together nicely and it doesn’t feel too disjointed.  I just needed something to criticize, and for me I could’ve done without the hint of book two at the end of this first story.

The characters are very well developed, and absolutely wonderfully written.  Elizabeth and Nathaniel’s love story is engaging and complicated, and Donati tells their story exquisitely.  The playful banter and rousing arguments between the two are written very well and you can feel the emotion coming through each page.  Elizabeth is a heroine with substance and a determination that oozes out of the book.  She is all English grace and propriety until the wilderness calls her, then she becomes like a mama bear; defending what is hers against any and all that attempt to trespass against her.  Her transformation throughout the story is developed and described flawlessly.  All the secondary characters have a depth to them, and you can really feel who they are and what their purpose is in the book.   All the characters have a complexity to them, and yet Donati is able to simplify who they are with brief yet descriptive sequences to allow the reader to really know each resident in Paradise.

I’m a big fan of historical fiction, and this book didn’t disappoint me in the least and so I give this book an A grade.  It’s a cross between Last of the Mohicans and Outlander, and there are echoes of those books (and a few characters from those books) in this story, but Donati’s story is original and enthralling.  There’s the enchanting love story of Nathaniel and Elizabeth, there’s suspense and drama to go along with heartache and humor.  And through it all, Donati balances it all out to create a captivating story that has only just begun.