Synopses & Reviews
Follow Lewis and Clark and their crew on a perilous trek through theuncharted West in this extraordinary debut novel.
I mean to tell you this story the only way I know how. That is to say, I will tell it like a river. It may meander here and there, but in the end it will always find its way to the sea.
Two hundred years ago, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark launched their wooden boats up the Missouri River in search of the illusory Northwest Passage, a journey that would capture the American imagination and help forge a young nation's identity. Now, in a riveting debut novel, Allan Wolf tells the story of this extraordinary voyage through the eyes of not only the famed pair but also several members of their self-named Corps of Discovery. Here, in powerful, lyrical language, is a medley of voices from a surprisingly diverse crew — from the one-eyed French Indian fiddler who pilots the boats to Clark's African American slave; from the young Shoshone woman who has a baby en route to Lewis's Newfoundland dog, a "seer" whose narrative resonates long after the book is closed.
About the Author
Allan Wolf is a member of the national touring company Poetry Alive!, and is able to recite hundreds of poems from memory. Perhaps it is unsurprising, then, that he chose to write this novel in poetic form. As he says, "During the four years it took to research and write NEW FOUND LAND, my head was constantly crowded with the novel's fourteen voices. They talked to me as I made breakfast, as I dressed the baby, as I delivered newspapers, and as I brushed my teeth. They talked and talked. Alone in my car I began to talk back. And together all fifteen of us worked out the details of the story. Happily, my head is now quiet, the voices having moved to their permanent home within this book." NEW FOUND LAND is Allan Wolf's first novel.