The Coming

Product Description

A sweeping historical novel of the American West that follows the dramatic life of Daytime Smoke, Nez Perce son of explorer William Clark. The Coming is an epic novel of native-white relations in North America, intimately told through the life of Daytime Smoke--the real-life red-haired son of William Clark & a Nez Perce woman. In 1805, Lewis & Clark stumble out of the Rockies on the edge of starvation. The Nez Perce help the explorers build canoes & navigate the rapids of the Columbia, then spend two months hosting them the following spring before leading them back across the snowbound mountains. Daytime Smoke is born not long after, & the tribe of his youth continues a deep friendship with white Americans, from fur trappers to missionaries, even aiding the United States government in wars with neighboring tribes. But when gold is discovered on Nez Perce land in 1860, it sets an inevitable tragedy in motion. Daytime Smoke`s life spanned the seven decades between first contact & the last great Indian war. Capturing the trajectory experienced by so many native peoples--from friendship & cooperation to betrayal, war, & genocide--this sweeping novel, with its large cast of characters & vast geography, braids historical events with the drama of one man`s remarkable life. Rigorously researched & cinematically rendered, The Coming is a page-turning, heart-stopping American novel in a classic mode.