Across the Endless River

✍ Scribed by Carhart, Thad

• Book ID: 106866796
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: en-GB
• Weight: 263 KB
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9780767931731

✦ Synopsis

From Publishers Weekly

Carhart follows The Piano Shop on the Left Bank with an uneven historical about the divide between the rugged frontiers of the New World and the court intrigues of Europe. Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, son of Sacagawea, acts as a guide for natural scientist Paul Wilhelm of Württemberg. Impressed by Baptiste's knowledge, Paul invites him to travel to Europe and assist him in cataloguing his North American treasures, beginning a five-year adventure that will see Baptiste change in ways he could not imagine. In Europe, Baptiste visits noble homes and palaces, attends lavish balls and beds charming women. He ambles through a Parisian market, taking in its pungent smells and the high, piercing cries from the sellers and later joins the French gentry on a civilized hunt. It's all marvelously captured, and though Carhart can be less than subtle with some of the race politics, the biggest problem with this finely crafted milieu is that Baptiste's survey of Europe feels more like a prelude than a plot. The imagery is stirring, but the story isn't. (Sept.)
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Review

“The son of Sacagawea . . . Jean-Baptiste is made whole for us; he falls in love, he feels apart from all cultures_—_the native or the American or the European.” _—Los Angeles Times

_“Carhart is a skilled and graceful writer. . . . Across the Endless River should appeal to lovers of history and historical novels alike.” —The Huntington News (West Virginia)

“Richly detailed.” —USA Today

“Across the Endless River is filled with vivid descriptions of city streets, palaces and country estates, while the plot moves at a reflective, inner level.”_ —_Historical Novels

“Gracefully done. . . . Sensitively compares and contrasts the Old World with the New.”_ —Kirkus Reviews_

“Riveting.” —Reuters

__ “Marvelously captured. . . . Stirring.” —_Publisher's Weekly _
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“The list of novels chronicling the Lewis and Clark expedition is long, but . . . Carhart provides a fresh perspective. Fans of historical fiction with a romantic storyline, such as the novels of Anya Seton, should enjoy this.” —_Library Journal _