Try free for 30 days

  • Into the Wilderness

  • A Novel
  • By: Sara Donati
  • Narrated by: Kate Reading
  • Length: 30 hrs and 13 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (43 ratings)

1 credit a month to use on any title, yours to keep (you’ll use your first credit on this title).
Stream or download thousands of included titles.
Access to exclusive deals and discounts.
$16.45 a month after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.
Into the Wilderness cover art

Into the Wilderness

By: Sara Donati
Narrated by: Kate Reading
Try for $0.00

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $43.99

Buy Now for $43.99

Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.

Publisher's Summary

Weaving a vibrant tapestry of fact and fiction, Into the Wilderness sweeps us into another time and place...and into the heart of a forbidden, incandescent affair between a spinster Englishwoman and an American frontiersman. Here is an epic of romance and history that will captivate listeners from the start.

When Elizabeth Middleton, 29 years old and unmarried, leaves her Aunt Merriweather's comfortable English estate to join her father and brother in the remote mountain village of Paradise on the edge of the New York wilderness, she does so with a strong will and an unwavering purpose: to teach school.

It is December of 1792 when she arrives in a cold climate unlike any she has ever experienced. And she meets a man different from any she has ever encountered - a white man dressed like a Native American, tall and lean and unsettling in his blunt honesty. He is Nathaniel Bonner, also known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives.

Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village - White, Black, and Native American - Elizabeth soon finds herself at odds with local slave owners. Much to her surprise, she clashes with her own father as well. Financially strapped, Judge Middleton has plans for his daughter - betrothal to local doctor Richard Todd. An alliance with Todd could extract her father from ruin but would call into question the ownership of Hidden Wolf, the mountain where Nathaniel, his father, and a small group of Native Americans live and hunt.

As Judge Middleton brings pressure to bear against his daughter, she is faced with a choice between compliance and deception, a flight into the forest, and a desire that will bend her hard will to compromise and transformation.

Elizabeth's ultimate destiny, here in the heart of the wilderness, lies in the odyssey to come: trials of faith and flesh, and passion born amid Nathaniel's own secrets and divided soul.

Interweaving the fate of the remnants of the Mohawk Nation with the destiny of two lovers, Sara Donati's compelling novel creates a complex, profound, passionate portrait of an emerging America.

©2009 Sara Donati (P)2009 Random House

Critic Reviews

"My favorite kind of book is the sort you live in, rather than read. Into the Wilderness is one of those rare stories that let you breathe the air of another time, and leave your footprints on the snow of a wild, strange place. I can think of no better adventure than to explore the wilderness in the company of such engaging and independent lovers as Elizabeth and her Nathaniel." (Diana Gabaldon)
"Each time you open a book you hope to discover a story that will make your spirit of adventure and romance sing. This book delivers on that promise." (Amanda Quick)

What listeners say about Into the Wilderness

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    40
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    33
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    32
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Love

Read this before, and just wanted to listen to it this time, excited for the rest of the series.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Read

I first read this a few years ago and loved it. Liken to Diana Gabaldon Outlander but with a unique slant. Audio version did not dissapoint, looking forward to No 2 in series 💖💖💖

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Just Outstanding

Have long waited for the wilderness series to come available. Kate Reading's narration is superb. The story catches you from the first line. It is so well written it takes you into the world completely. Have listened to this book many times. Love the characters especially Curiosity.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing tale of history and romance

What a great story.
Told with the right amount of empathy and historical facts.
Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this.
Narrator spoke well with nice voice changes.
Will definitely be looking for that next book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

To sigh for!

I loved the main heroine, feisty yet vulnerable and realistically portrayed.

The plot is superbly weaved together, always holding tension and suspense. There are fascinating and credible characters in this novel, some endearing, some troublesome, who play a dramatic and impacting role in the unfolding story.

The novel gives a historical overview of the complex interactions of various people groups and their historical backgrounds in the 18th Century, in the Northern parts of what is now the USA.

Finally, it is a breathtaking and tastefully portrayed romantic love story between two unlikely characters, breaking all conventions of the day and successfully fighting to find a place to live out their passionate love for each other, their chosen tribe and lifestyle.

I listened to it twice, masterfully narrated by Kate Reading!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it

And very much looking forwards to the next book in series. I did a double-take and listened to one portion several times to make sure I heard right … the mention of Clare and Jamie Fraser (from Outlander’s), made me chuckle! This is a book I’d listen to time and again, and thoroughly enjoyed the narration, so clever with all the accents of both male and female!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A beautiful beautiful novel

This is simply my favourite novel of all time and I have read it many times. The series is exceptional and Kate Reading does an especially lovely job of all characters. This story will transport the reader planting them softly upon the wall within the sphere of this family its characters and setting, a picture complete will keep you turning the pages over and over. Thankyou Sara Donati
Kindest Regards
Nicole Rendle-Smith

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.