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Daniel James Brown
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The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride Hardcover – April 28, 2009

by Daniel James Brown (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 6,597 ratings
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From the #1 bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat comes an unforgettable epic of family, tragedy, and survival on the American frontier

“An ideal pairing of talent and material.… Engrossing.… A deft and ambitious storyteller.” – Mary Roach, New York Times Book Review

In April of 1846, twenty-one-year-old Sarah Graves, intent on a better future, set out west from Illinois with her new husband, her parents, and eight siblings. Seven months later, after joining a party of pioneers led by George Donner, they reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains as the first heavy snows of the season closed the pass ahead of them. In early December, starving and desperate, Sarah and fourteen others set out for California on snowshoes, and, over the next thirty-two days, endured almost unfathomable hardships and horrors.

In this gripping narrative, New York Times bestselling author Daniel James Brown sheds new light on one of the most legendary events in American history. Following every painful footstep of Sarah’s journey with the Donner Party, Brown produces a tale both spellbinding and richly informative.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Mariner Books
  4. Publication date
    April 28, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0061348104
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0061348105
  8. See all details
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  1. Death was the rule, life the exception. Life was at best a transitory dream, set in a universe that was entirely indifferent to his fate.
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  2. Most simply ignored both the Mexican government and its requirements and thus became California’s original illegal immigrants.
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  3. Modern disaster psychologists have found that bold, decisive leadership greatly improves any group’s ability to survive the early stages of an impending catastrophe.
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The story of the ill-fated Donner party, a group of nineteenth-century settlers en route to California who became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains and resorted to cannibalism to survive, remains an iconic moment in American history. Given the story’s inherent elements of horror and heroism, it is surprising that this account, told from the point of view of a young bride who survived the tragedy, is finally such an uninteresting book. Part of the problem is the author’s inability of incorporate his copious background material into the flow of the narrative (readers probably don’t need to know about 1840s-era birth-control methods). Even the author’s treatment of the tragedy itself, however, feels dully reportorial, without any of the you-are-there drama that Piers Paul Reid brough to Alive!, his account of history’s second-most-famous cannibalism-survival story, concerning the famous 1972 airplane crash in the Andes. So why bother with this Donner party treatment when so many other, more compelling works exist? The premise itself sets this book apart, and while it’s not handled particularly effectively, it will still interest those fascinated by the subject. --David Pitt

Review

“An ideal pairing of talent and material. . . . Engrossing. . . . A deft and endearing storyteller.” — Mary Roach, New York Times Book Review

“Remarkable. ... Hard to put down.” — Seattle Times

“A compelling retelling of the ghastly events surrounding the Donner party. Daniel James Brown, using one survivor’s experience as his focus, moves beyond the cardboard figures depicted in previous accounts and shows how the lucky few endured and survived.” — Irvin Molotsky, author of The Flag, The Poet and the Song: The Story of the Star-Spangled Banner

“A skillful, suspenseful study of the Donner Party. ... Brown creates a thorough and unique narrative. A moving man-against-nature tragedy that still resonates today.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Daniel James Brown brings the myth to life, transforming faint history class memories into gripping reality. ... Utterly compelling.” — BookPage

“[Brown] tells the tale with a novelist’s touch.” — Boston Globe

“A fresh and intriguing telling . . . . engrossing and appalling in equal measure. Never melodramatic or maudlin, Brown’s work gracefully balances graphic depictions of extreme privation with humanizing glimpses of the emigrants’ everyday hopes and fears. Brown also skillfully weaves relevant historical, cultural, and scientific information . . . creating a rich and contextualized background.” — Library Journal

“In this gripping narrative, Brown reveals the extremes of endurance that underlie the history of this nation, and more than that, of humanity in any part of the world, even today, surviving great peril in search of a better life.” — Nina Burleigh

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books; 1st edition (April 28, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0061348104
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0061348105
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 6,597 ratings

About the author

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Daniel James Brown

Daniel James Brown

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Daniel James Brown grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended Diablo Valley College, the University of California at Berkeley, and UCLA. He taught writing at San Jose State University and Stanford before becoming a technical writer and editor. He now writes narrative nonfiction books full time. His primary interest as a writer is in bringing compelling historical events to life vividly and accurately.

He and his wife live in the country outside of Seattle, Washington, with an assortment of cats, dogs, chickens, and honeybees. When he isn't writing, he is likely to be birding, gardening, fly fishing, reading American history, or chasing bears away from the beehives.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
6,597 global ratings
So goooood
5 Stars
So goooood
Love it so far. Very well written as the author paints a picture of the prairie and what the party was going into.
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Top reviews from the United States

Gettysburg Girl
5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and Beautiful Story of Real Life Heros and Heroines
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2016
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Although the subject of The Donner Party sounds a little off-putting, I bought this book because Daniel James Brown is an outstanding writer and I loved another of his books, The Boys in the Boat (also a five star review from me). I was not disappointed with this one. Although it is a poignant story, Brown presents it in a way that is wonderfully compassionate and terrifically fascinating. He doesn't dwell on the sorrowful, but somehow injects elements of hope and honor and heroism throughout. As he did in The Boys in the Boat, Brown focuses primarily on one person, Sarah Graves and her family, while also introducing many other persons and family groups. Thus, it is an immensely personal saga.

Much of the book describes the early part of the trek before they reach the Sierra Nevada's. There are large groups of wagons heading westward and these various groups pass each other up again and again on the trail and often some join up with others, making the final composition of the families and individuals in a particular group a veritable crap-shoot by the time they begin to reach the mountains. When they must decide on how to proceed when the trail splits, a profiteering man urges them toward a short-cut toward Oregon even though he knows it is impassable for wagons. He, himself, does not stay with the group, but he has convinced them they should forget about California and head north to Oregon. The trail is brutal and back-breaking and snow comes early.

The party eventually separates into three separate camps in close proximity to one another and attempt to hunker down until the weather improves. But, it doesn't. Several men go on alone in search of a waystop where help can be found. Eventually many rescue parties travel back to the camps and take out as many people who can walk (mostly children at times) as they can. This is done over and over, all the while, the circumstances of the survivors growing more dire as they wait. Interestingly, the women, in general, fared better than the men. Being smaller framed, they didn't require the same calorie intake.

Brown's writing is compelling and beautiful. Sarah and two sisters are all that is left of her large family. When all survivors are delivered to safety, he tells us what became of all of them, detailing their lives, subsequent families, etc. There are also many photographs of Sarah's family and others who accompanied them.

This is a page turner and I highly recommend.
17 people found this helpful
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Tripower53
4.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2018
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4 stars

This book is both and exhaustive study and a telling tale of brutal life in the 1840’s.Sarah Graves and her family have joined a wagon train to California from their home in Illinois. The story is focused on Sarah, but tells of the experiences of the others in the party as well; at least as much as we can know about their thoughts and feelings from our point of view. It describes the initial exaltation turning to misery and pain as time and miles go by. The book talks about the fauna and flora the travelers experienced on the journey. It discusses the weather and its changes, the changes in the very ground on which the walkers were traversing.

The book also discusses the less than honest among not only the travelers, but those who are out to get what they can. Like those who are misleading the journeyers on purpose to gain their own ends and those who feel that their own needs come before anyone else’s. As the trek went on mile after mile, the tempers flared ans fights broke out. The book offers explanations for how this happened and the subsequent consequences of certain individual’s actions.

This is a well written account of the ill-fated “Donner Party” and especially one Sarah Graves, although she married a man called Jay Fosdick before she left home for her adventure in the wilderness. Although some of it is conjecture, I appreciated Mr. Brown’s effort and what must have been exhaustive research that went into his story. I like the way Mr. Brown interjects some historical facts into the story, such as the history of the undertaker business and the history of the celebration of Christmas in America. The first time he did this, it was a jarring distraction, but it grew on me as I read along. I have read many accounts of the Donner Party and this one is among the best.

I immediately went back to Amazon to look for others of Mr. Brown’s works.
14 people found this helpful
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Kathleen H.
5.0 out of 5 stars A rather gruesome and tragic story
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2024
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This book is a very interesting read. It was gruesome and heartbreaking, but extremely well researched. I would highly recommend it to anyone seriously into wilderness survival!
One person found this helpful
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dawn carrico
5.0 out of 5 stars Sad,but great historic novel
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2024
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Very good. Read in 3 days
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Avid Reader
3.0 out of 5 stars Not in the same league as The Boys in the Boat
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2016
Verified Purchase
Let me begin by saying I devoured The Boys in the Boat. I thought the author's characterization wonderful and although it was non-fiction, it read like a novel. Full of suspense, and I turned each page with excitement. That is saying something as the subject matter was not something that had ever interested me.

Not so with this book. It dragged. It was clumsy and none of the characters came alive for me. The repetition appalling, for instance (the editors, line editors, and proof readers have a lot to answer for) the words "began to" ... a staggering 190 times.
"Begun to" 52 times. Add another 30 times for "beginning to" and "begin to".

Even a novice writer should avoid this. The endless "began to" really weakened the story and the writing. Ninety-eight percent of them could have been cut. It was "beginning to" dive me crazy!

I suspect this book was written years ago, never published, and then revived after Daniel James Brown's great success. Because that is the only way I can see how the same talented author who wrote Boys in the Boat wrote this. SHAME on the publishers for not providing a better editor.

There are some fascinating facts, but I bet there are other books on the subject of the Donner Party far more captivating than this one.

Very disappointed and sad there was not a better editor to whip, what could have been an amazing book, into shape.
27 people found this helpful
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Magmurph
4.0 out of 5 stars Historical and sad
Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2024
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The entire history and the harshness of weather, terrain and people fighting for survival, then of how close the party were when they took a wrong turn, was written beautifully by Daniel James Brown. I dont regret reading this book however at times it was difficult to get thru the horrors and struggles so evident of a people that wanted so desperately to move West to Ca.,
And were so deceived.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Udipt Guha
5.0 out of 5 stars Harrowing
Reviewed in India on June 4, 2023
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A very detailed telling of one of the most extraordinary event of the triumph of the will over everything.Very sharply written
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Julian Guffogg
5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2022
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Was a little doubtful when I saw that the writer followed one member of the party, but this was soon OK when the book got going. He sets the scene, and often expands into what life was like in the mid 19th century. I found it gripping and harrowing at the same time. Also unbelievable how the party could be convinced to take a new, untried route. Amazing that young children, older folk, pregnant and ill departed on this massive journey, and prevailed when most of us would have turned back or given up.
A nice follow up at the end too when the author retraces their steps and gives the history of the descendents.
To sum up, a book that was fascinating and hard to put down!
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Kristen
5.0 out of 5 stars Well researched and suspenseful
Reviewed in Canada on May 11, 2019
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This is an extremely well written and well done account of the Donner Party disaster. It was a great read. The only issue I had was the authors decision to tell the story from the perspective of a member of the party, Sarah Graves. He makes a lot of that decision throughout the book but I dont feel like it added a lot, and as he didnt have a lot of information about Sarah, i found a lot of that part of it was conjecture on the authors part. But that's a small complaint and the exhaustiveness of the research that went into the book means you'll learn a lot about the era as well as how people respond to traumatic events. Very very good book!
One person found this helpful
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Infinity
5.0 out of 5 stars Packend und bewegend
Reviewed in Germany on October 4, 2019
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Ich konnte dieses Buch fast nicht mehr weg legen. Es liest sich (mit den entsprechenden Englischkenntnissen) extrem flüssig, bleibt aber trotzdem so nah wie möglich an den historischen Fakten und schafft es auch noch die blutigsten Details zu schildern, ohne reißerisch zu werden. Ich würde es jedem empfehlen, der sich für die düsteren Abgründe der Geschichte interessiert und einen relativ starken Magen hat.
One person found this helpful
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Vince Reimer
4.0 out of 5 stars Fast delivery
Reviewed in Canada on October 24, 2023
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I'm uncertain. I was so troubled by the story that I put it on the shelf 60% read and haven't picked it up again. Very well written, but a troubling story.
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