Review: Into the Wilderness (Wilderness, Book 1) by Sara Donati

Title:Into the Wilderness (Wilderness, Book 1)
Author: Sara Donati
Publisher: Bantam Books
Publication Date: August 3, 1999
Edition: Paperback (876 pages)

Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Elizabeth Middleton arrives in the newly independent United States of America in 1792. Her ambition is to start a school for the children in the small New York village where her father and brother live. She is smart and has her own ideas which do not always gain her favor with her family and the people of the village. Almost immediately, she meets Nathaniel Bonner who lives in both the world of the white man and the Native American. There is an instant attraction for both of them. Elizabeth and Nathaniel have to decide whether they are going to defy custom and cultural norms of the time and build a life together.

Into the Wilderness (Wilderness, Book 1) is Elizabeth and Nathaniel's story, as well as a historical novel of the period. The author paints a vivid picture of the hardships endured by the early European settlers and the spoken and unspoken prejudices they held against the Native People of the land. The reader is transported back to that time and enmeshed in the complexities of life and death. The love between Elizabeth and Nathaniel is tested, tried and molded as they themselves are molded by life and circumstance.

This book is a moving mural for the reader with history, contrasts of character, color and scenery. I am looking forward to continuing on with the next book in this Series.