Pictures from an Expedition (el. knyga) (skaityta knyga) | knygos.lt

Aprašymas

Diane Smith has been making a name for herself as an author of literary historical fiction that features strong heroines, memorable characters, and surprising revelations from the natural sciences. Her highly praised 1999 debut novel, "Letters from Yellowstone," about a botanical field study in Yellowstone National Park, won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award.
Set in 1876, right after the Battle of Little Bighorn, Smith's new novel tells of a group of scientists, explorers, and others who traveled west after suffering significant losses during the Civil War. Their stories are told through the remembrances of Eleanor Peterson, a scientific illustrator in her late thirties who joins them to document a dinosaur fossil dig. She journeys to the Montana badlands with her friend and mentor, the utterly fascinating Augustus Starwood, an aging portrait painter with a passion for Shakespeare.
What starts as a summer respite from the city is soon complicated by heartfelt arguments over prevailing theories of evolution, by Indians moving north after their defeat of Custer, and by rival scientists attempting to steal what could be the largest dinosaur remains ever uncovered. Exploring a desolate land, this ambitious and, at times, contentious field crew learns from art and science how to move beyond hte past, and how to rebuild their lives far from civilization.
With sharp insight, Smith draws from the historical record, when fossibl feuds were raging and evolution was fiercely debated. Ultimately, though, "Pictures from an Expedition" is a novel of personal discovery, revealing the redemptive power of the land and the rivers that run through it.