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| Manufacturer | - |
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| Brand | Dean King |
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| Product Id | 1986424 |
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| User Reviews and Ratings | 3 (1 ratings) 3 out of 5 stars |
| UPC | 463070428547 |
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Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival (Paperback)
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Reading more like an historical adventure novel, Skeletons on the Zahara by Dean King tells the true story of twelve American sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Africa in 1815. Captured by Arab nomads, these men endured starvation, brutality, dehydration and constant fear. Separated from each other, marched back and forth across the desert, their survival, much less their return to America seemed an impossible dream, but this was often all these men had to hold onto. The author obviously researched extensively and supplied many details about the land, the climate, and the people as well as the fate of these twelve sailors. Breathing life into a forgotten story from the past, this page-turner held my attention from beginning to end. I was grateful that the author supplied lots of maps, which help define the journey these men were forced to bear, along with a glossary, and reading notes for further clarification. I suspect this will be a story that I long remember, Skeletons On The Zahara is a prime example of how absorbing narrative non-fiction can be.
an excellent survival story; lets you feel what he is going thru while at the same time astounding you with what the human body can physically take
A true "Survivor" tale. To heck with the fake tv show read this book. It is a wonderful tale of a group of sailors stranded off of the Ivory Coast of Africa in the 19th century.
5388. Skeletons on the Zahara A True Story of Survival, by Dean King (read 3 July 2016) This 2004 book is the result of the author discovering an 1817 book by James Riley, captain of the brig Commerce which left Connecticut in May 1815 and after stopping at New Orleans sailed to Gibralter and then was wrecked of the coast of Africa in August 1815. The officers and crew--12 people in all, including a 15-year-old cabin boy who was the nephew of the captain, managed to get ashore but were captured by mostly ill-behaving natives. The account of the terrible time they had in regard to food, water, and mistreatment is set out in gruesome detail. One must admire the excellent job the captain did in seeing to it that at least some of the crew survived and were ransomed In fact, since one is reading the book one knows that some survived--and this makes reading less dolorous.
Gripping. A survival novel based on historic Africa. This book taught me more about living in rustic rudimentary poverty than probably any other -- even better than Poverty by Vollmann. Although this is an adventure and survival story, the accounts of the lifestyle of the African nomads - how little they had to eat, how dear any morsel of food was, for their entire lives, their rituals of killing a sheep at midnight, all these things are indelibly marked on my brain. Although technically some of the seafaring survival situations seem horrid, this one seems worse than all of them. The men were sold into slavery in Africa to incredible lean/poor nomads and treated terribly. The book is graphic and effected me emotionally. I won't spoil the end but the book does have a solid beginning, middle and end and I was relieved to get some closure on most of the men and what happened to them - as much of the book is based on historical journals.
"Skeletons on the Zahara" is a true but gut-wrenching, dehydrating, queasy story of fate of Captain James Riley and the men of The Commerce. The story itself is horrifying and contains a quality of human suffering that is incomprehensible to the first world mind. I read this book right after reading "Endurance Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" and I was constantly comparing the two the whole time. Both stories are remarkable and I can't imagine how anything but Divine providence could ever attribute to their survival. From a writing style, I found Dean King's prose preferable but a little choppy at times. His re-telling was much faster paced than Shackleton's though the events in Africa were far more eventful than in the Antarctic. Additionally, though King painted many scenes like a novelist would, I found myself wishing that he worked harder to develop his real-life characters and portrayed even more of their humanness.On a personal note, reading survival stories like those of Shackleton and Riley seem have a noticeable impact on my moral character. I can't imagine how one could read these stories and not find their hearts swelling in thanksgiving and gratitude. I am reminded how heavy God's hand of blessing and how light his hand of affliction has been on me.Shackleton and Riley have left their mark on me and I imagine I will tell these stories to my children (once they develop strong enough stomachs of course).
Entertaining introduction to a classic true adventure story. Although this is a modern retelling King often lapses into an early 19th style that makes it obvious he is paraphrasing from source material. Further a journalistic retelling of what happened 200 years, versus the first-person memoir by Riley soon after the events - which is still fairly readable - makes me want to read the original. Although the inhuman "sufferings" of the crew are what most remark on, I was most drawn by the lifestyle of the desert natives since it seemed unchanged for 5000 years or more, and provides a glimpse into the age-old fight of settled vs nomadic peoples. Given how harsh nomadic life is I wondered why anyone practiced it, and the answer became clear: "civilization" could be even more deadly, the desert was a refuge from cruel and capricious rulers and endless tribal feuds that could wipe out entire settlements.
This is solid adventure story. It made me want to read Riley's original account of the shipwreck and enslavement of the crew of the Commerce in 1815.
Really a 3.5. While it does get a little slow early on, it ultimately becomes a compelling true story. In fact so compelling that it is hard to understand how anyone survived. I also appreciate the short post-script where the results of this ordeal were talked about. A bit of a slog at times, but still worth the read.
Listened to this as audiobook, which I think impacted my enjoyment of the book. I had searched my library's Overdrive system for this book for a few years, and I was thrilled that my searches finally paid off. Unfortunately the book in audio form just wasn't enjoyable. I think the reader is the cause for it. He has a great voice, but it's just too old and harsh to listen to for an extended period of time. I can only imagine I would have enjoyed the text of this book more.