Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West, by Ethan Rarick

A fast-paced, heart-wrenching, clear-eyed narrative history, “Desperate Passage” casts new light on one of America’s most horrific encounters between the dream of a better life and the harsh realities such dreams so often must confront. “This sober, unflinching look at one of the great tragedies of America’s pioneering past tells us a great deal that is new about the Donner Party’s trials. Rarick scythes away the myths of one of the nation’s better-known sagas, and offers up this horrific but ennobling tale in all its freshly researched detail. Readers take heed: this is a tough book, but a gripping one.” Simon Winchester, author of “Krakatoa”.