Wilderness

6 primary works

Into the Wilderness

by Sara Donati

Published 3 August 1998

Elizabeth Middleton leaves a comfortable life in the upper-class England of 1792 to join her father in his colonial mission in a remote American outpost. It is not long, however, before Elizabeth realises that her father has brought her to America under false pretences. While encouraging her dreams of teaching the local children, he in fact intends to marry off the fiercely independent Elizabeth to Richard Todd, a fellow pioneer, thereby ensuring his own possession of the local land. As a result, Elizabeth is increasingly drawn away from her English colonial heritage and towards that of the Mohawks, and in particular towards the man who will eventually change her life forever, the white Mohawk Nathaniel Bonner. Beautifully written, passionate and compelling, Sara Donati interweaves the destiny of the two lovers torn between the English and Mohawk cultures in a unforgettably vivid portrait of an emerging America.

Dawn on a Distant Shore

by Sara Donati

Published 1 January 2000

In an icy, untamed world of pristine beauty, a husband and wife are torn apart by fate but reunited forever by a love that can't be broken....

An unforgettable love comes alive in this masterful epic of passion, treachery, and adventure....

Award-winning author Sara Donati's debut novel, Into the Wilderness, was hailed as "one of those rare stories that let you breathe the air of another time" (Diana Gabaldon). Now, in an eloquent blend of fact and fiction, Donati re-creates her beloved characters from Into the Wilderness in an enthralling new tale of romance and adventure.

Elizabeth and Nathaniel Bonner have settled into their life together at the edge of the New-York wilderness in the winter of 1794. But soon after Elizabeth gives birth to healthy twins, Nathaniel learns that his father has been arrested in British Canada. Forced to leave Hidden Wolf Mountain to help his father in Montreal, Nathaniel himself is imprisoned and in danger of being hanged as a spy.

In a desperate bid to save her husband, Elizabeth bundles her infants and sets out through the snowy wilderness and across treacherous waterways on the dangerous trek to Canada. But she soon discovers that freeing her husband will take every ounce of her courage and inventiveness — and will threaten her with the loss of what she loves most: her children.

Torn apart, the Bonners must embark on yet another perilous voyage, this time all the way across the ocean to the heart of Scotland, where a destiny they could never have imagined awaits them....

Lake in the Clouds

by Sara Donati

Published 30 July 2002

The third novel in the Wilderness series finds the Bonner family back home in the North American frontier. A sparkling, absorbing historical novel, set in America at a time when the growing population in the towns clashed with the frontiersmen, the adventurers and the original settlers, in their attempts to regulate society, as they saw it. The Bonner family easily straddle both worlds. But Hannah, the oldest daughter, a gifted healer, training in medical studies in New York, finds herself in real difficulties when she nurses and saves a runaway slave. Her actions lead her and the family into new danger as the bounty hunters are led by her childhood friend and first love, and the runaway slave's escape is facilitated by one of her foster brothers. Sara Donati captures brilliantly the vigorous spirit of those willing to leave their homelands for new adventures and the conflicts between their different cultures, all set in the magnificent sweep of the teeming cities and the wild countryside.

Fire Along the Sky

by Sara Donati

Published 1 January 2004

A strong, vivid historical novel set against the backdrop of the 1812 war between Britain and America. Fire Along the Sky is the story of one woman's unforgettable journey across a young nation threatened by the flames of war. The year is 1812 and Hannah Bonner has returned to her family's mountain cabin. But Nathaniel and Elizabeth can see that Hannah is not the same woman as when she left. For their daughter has come home without her husband and son, and with a story of loss and tragedy that she can't even bear to tell. Yet as Hannah resumes her duties as a gifted healer, she finds that she is slowly healing herself. Little does she realise that she is about to face her greatest challenge ever. Hannah is called away to the war to perform one final act of courage, duty and sacrifice. And in risking everything once more, she may learn to live - and even to love - again. Sara Donati's novel is passionate and compelling. It brilliantly captures the vigorous spirit of its young protagonist, and the setting is one of the most exciting and pivotal eras in American history.

Queen of Swords

by Sara Donati

Published 1 January 2006

Gripping historical adventure set in the 1800s from the French Antilles to the tumultous battle for New Orleans.

It is the late summer of 1814, and Hannah Bonner and her half brother Luke have spent more than a year searching the islands of the Caribbean for Luke's wife and the man who abducted her. But Jennet's rescue, so long in coming, is not the resolution they'd hoped for. In the spring she had given birth to Luke's son, and in the summer Jennet had found herself compelled to surrender the infant to a stranger in the hope of keeping him safe.

To claim the child, Hannah, Luke, and Jennet must journey first to Pensacola. There they learn a great deal about the family that has the baby. The Poiterins are a very rich, very powerful Creole family, totally without scruple. The matriarch of the family has left Pensacola for New Orleans and taken the child she now claims as her great-grandson with her.

New Orleans is a city on the brink of war, a city where prejudice thrives and where Hannah, half Mohawk, must tread softly. Careful plans are made as the Bonners set out to find and reclaim young Nathaniel Bonner. Plans that go terribly awry, isolating them from each other in a dangerous city at the worst of times.

Sure that all is lost, and sick unto death, Hannah finds herself in the care of a family and a friend from her past, Dr. Paul de Guise Savard dit Saint-d'Uzet. It is Dr. Savard and his wife who save Hannah's life, but Dr. Savard's half brother who offers her real hope. Jean-Benoit Savard, the great-grandson of French settlers, slaves, and Choctaw and Seminole Indians, is the one man who knows the city well enough to engineer the miracle that will reunite the Bonners and send them home to Lake in the Clouds. With Ben Savard's guidance, allies are drawn from every segment of New Orleans's population and from Andrew Jackson's army, now pouring into the city in preparation for what will be the last major battle of the War of 1812.

The Endless Forest

by Sara Donati

Published 1 January 2010

A rich, passionate, multilayered portrayal of family strength and endurance from bestselling author Sara Donati
 
In the spring of 1824, in the remote village of Paradise on the New York frontier, Nathaniel and Elizabeth Bonner celebrate a glorious reunion as their children return from far-off places: Lily and her husband from Italy, and Martha Kirby, the Bonners’ ward, from Manhattan. In the peace that follows a devastating flood, childhood friends Martha and Daniel, Lily’s twin brother, suddenly begin to see each other in a new light. But their growing bond is threatened when Martha’s estranged mother arrives back in Paradise. Jemima Southern is a dangerous schemer who has destroyed more than one family, and her anger touches everyone, as do her secrets. Has Jemima come to claim her daughter—or does she have other, darker motives? Whatever transpires, Martha, Daniel, and all the Bonners must stand united against the threats to both heart and home.