Far As The Eye Can See

Description

A Union veteran several times over, Bobby Hale has repeatedly deserted and re-enlisted under different names to earn the enlistment bonus. After the civil war, he sets his heart on California, but only makes it as far as Montana. Now after shooting the wrong people he has to evade not only the US Army but also the native population. Against the growing conflict of the Great Sioux War, Bobby is travelling across the harsh horizon to make it back to Eveline, a poker-playing wagon owner who has taught him that he does not have to spend his life alone. Within miles of the woman he believes can save him, Hale's trigger finger lands him in trouble again, changing the course of his journey and setting him on a heart-stopping adventure across the Great Plains. Across ten years and thousands of hard-won miles, Bobby comes to understand the wilderness through those he encounters: the pioneers on the wagon trail who follow the glittering promise of gold; a Crow Brave who shows him meaning of real freedom and strength; and the militia men, still carrying the scars of the recent war, whose hatred of "Injuns" is even stronger than their fear. Far as the Eye Can See is the story of life in a place where every minute is an engagement in a kind of war of survival, and of how two people in the midst of such majesty and violence can manage to find a pathway to their own humanity.

Promotion info

An American Odyssey of adventure, revenge and unexpected courage in the vein of Cold Mountain, set against the dangerous wilderness of Indian Country and ultimately into the bloody reckoning of Custer's Last Stand

Reviews

Robert Bausch has produced a funny, intelligent, poignant novel that courageously explores the fundamental truths in all our lives New York Times on The Lives of Riley Chance An experience so intimate that it almost blinds you with love O, the Oprah Magazine, on The Gypsy Man A splendid novel, original in the best sense . raising the kind of questions that families are always asking New York Times Book Review on A Hole in the Earth

Author description

Robert Bausch is the author of seven novels and one collection of short stories. They include Almighty Me (optioned for film and eventually adapted as Bruce Almighty), A Hole in the Earth (a New York Times Notable and Washington Post Favourite Book of the Year) and Out of Season (also a Washington Post Favourite). He was born in Georgia and is Professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College. In 2005, he won the Fellowship of Southern Writers' Hillsdale Award for Fiction for his body of work. In 2009, he was awarded the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, also for sustained achievement. He has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Virginia. www.robertbausch.org