Book - BookDetective

Name: Alaska

Author: James A. Michener
Year: 1988
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Genres/categories:
Historical fiction, Travel

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ISBNs:
9780375761423
037576142X

In this sweeping epic of the northernmost American frontier, James A. Michener guides us through Alaska's fierce terrain and history, from the long-forgotten past to the bustling present. As his characters struggle for survival, Michener weaves together the exciting high points of Alaska's story: its brutal origins; the American acquisition; the gold rush; the tremendous growth and exploitation of the salmon industry; the arduous construction of the Alcan Highway, undertaken to defend the territory during World War II. A spellbinding portrait of a human community fighting to establish its place in the world,
traces a bold and majestic saga of the enduring spirit of a land and its people.

"Few will escape the allure of the land and people [Michener] describes. . . .
takes the reader on a journey through one of the bleakest, richest, most foreboding, and highly inviting territories in our Republic, if not the world. . . . The characters that Michener creates are bigger than life."

"Always the master of exhaustive historical research, Michener tracks the settling of Alaska [in] vividly detailed scenes and well-developed characters."

"Michener is still, sentence for sentence, writing's fastest attention grabber."