This is an astonishing tale of survival 'with more psychological depth than Robinson Crusoe*'; very poignant and based on true events. It delves deeper into its themes of survival and endurance than his previous novel The Great Death and delivers a stark and profound tale. The spare and evocative writing pays a great respect to the immense power of the elements and offers a fascinating insight into the lives of indigenous Alaskan Natives.
Seth is a typical teenager overweight from not getting enough exercise. One night he and his dog, Tucker, are washed overboard from his father's fishing boat during a torrential storm in the Gulf of Alaska. Although a rescue search goes on for days, the two are assumed drowned. But by good fortune, Seth and his dog make it safely to one of the hundreds of islands that line the coastline there. Over many months, the boy and his companion make their way, island by island, towards home, while Seth's desperate father never gives up hope. Along the way, Seth learns many hard lessons about survival and even harder lessons about himself.
John E. Smelcer was born in 1963, and is of Ahtna Athabaskan Indian
descent. Currently the Executive Director of the Ahtna Tribe's Heritage
Foundation, he has held visiting professorships at universities around
the world. He earned a doctorate in comparative literature in 1993 and
a masters degree in literature and humanities in 1991. He is faculty at
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
His work appears in
numerous international anthologies by the likes of Random House, Dover,
and American Indian Press. In 1994 he edited Durable Breath: Contemporary Native American Poetry (Salmon Run & American Indian Press). His poems have appeared in
such periodicals as The Atlantic Monthly, and he is poetry editor at
Rosebud, among the nation's most prestigious quarterlies of poetry and
fiction.
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