Synopses & Reviews
The bestselling author of
Blue Latitudes takes us on a thrilling and eye-opening voyage to pre-Mayflower America.
On a chance visit to Plymouth Rock, Tony Horwitz realizes he's mislaid more than a century of American history, from Columbus's sail in 1492 to Jamestown's founding in 16-oh-something. Did nothing happen in between? Determined to find out, he embarks on a journey of rediscovery, following in the footsteps of the many Europeans who preceded the Pilgrims to America.
An irresistible blend of history, myth, and misadventure, A Voyage Long and Strange captures the wonder and drama of first contact. Vikings, conquistadors, French voyageurs these and many others roamed an unknown continent in quest of grapes, gold, converts, even a cure for syphilis. Though most failed, their remarkable exploits left an enduring mark on the land and people encountered by late-arriving English settlers.
Tracing this legacy with his own epic trek from Florida's Fountain of Youth to Plymouth's sacred Rock, from desert pueblos to subarctic sweat lodges Tony Horwitz explores the revealing gap between what we enshrine and what we forget. Displaying his trademark talent for humor, narrative, and historical insight, A Voyage Long and Strange allows us to rediscover the New World for ourselves.
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"[I]nformative, whimsical, and thoroughly enjoyable....As always, Horwitz writes in a breezy, engaging style, so this combination of popular history and travelogue will be ideal for general readers." Booklist (Starred Review)
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"This readable and vastly entertaining history travelog is highly recommended." Library Journal (Starred Review)
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"[A] funny and lively new travelogue...popular history of the most accessible sort. The pace never flags, even for easily distracted readers, because Horwitz knows how to quick-cut between historical narrative and a breezy account of his own travels." Andrew Ferguson, The New York Times Book Review
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"Irreverent, effervescent....Accessible to all ages, hands-on and immensely readable, this book invites readers to search out America's story for themselves." Kirkus Reviews
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"A Voyage Long and Strange disturbing, honest, wonderfully written, and heroically researched should be required reading in every high school in the land." The Boston Globe
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"As Horwitz travels from sea to shining sea in search of historical truth, his prose varies from uplifting to sluggish. Only a true history buff will devote the effort needed to see it through." Rocky Mountain News
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"Horwitz's charm, smarts, impeccable research and curiosity make this a voyage worth taking. Gentle and funny, he manages to tell us just how astoundingly ignorant we are without chiding us at all." Cleveland Plain Dealer
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"[Horwitz] brings history to life with brio, he ponders its meanings with sensitivity, and he laments its general neglect with concern. By conveying our past so heartily, handsomely and winsomely, Tony Horwitz does America proud." Providence Journal
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"By turns history and travelogue...instructive and charming. Horwitz sure can spin a yarn. He re-creates the wonder and the horror of the explorers' encounters with exotic creatures. And his thumbnail sketches of the first-comers are tight and bright." Baltimore Sun
Synopsis
The bestselling author of Blue Latitudes takes readers on a thrilling and eye-opening voyage to pre-Mayflower America. An irresistible blend of history, myth, and misadventure, A Voyage Long and Strange captures the wonder and drama of first contact.
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About the Author
Tony Horwitz is the bestselling author of Blue Latitudes, Confederates in the Attic, and Baghdad Without a Map. He is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has worked for The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker. He lives in Martha's Vineyard with his wife, Geraldine Brooks, and their son, Nathaniel.