Caravan [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Dorothy Gilman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1992

Plucky Caressa Horvath travels with her anthropologist husband to Tripoli, where a band of vicious nomads kidnaps her, believing she is a sorceress, and force her to make a three-year odyssey across the Sahara. (Adventure & Suspense).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The author of the Mrs. Pollifax mysteries applies her talents to romance and danger in this entertaining tale of a young American woman's unexpected adventures in Africa during the early years of WW I. Raised in a circus by her widowed mother (the headless woman) and fortune-telling Grams, who teaches her to juggle and pick pockets, Caressa Horvath is sent to a Boston finishing school, which she leaves after she is caught lifting the wallet of world traveler Jacob Bowman. Capturing his heart, she marries him shortly before they embark for Tripoli, where they assemble a caravan and set off into the Sahara. They are attacked by fierce nomad Tuareg bandits, who kill everyone except Caressa because they fear her wooden finger puppets, made by Grams. A credible series of mishaps, trials and moments of courage keep Caressa alive as she and Bakuli, a captured Zambian youth, escape into the desert. Eventually they are taken as slaves; after helping Bakuli run away to freedom, Caressa is bought by a man who turns out to be a Scottish adventurer--and the love of her life. Encompassing betrayal, treachery, sorrow, heroism and ultimately reunion, Caressa's first-person story, begun in 1980 in order to inform her granddaughter of her background, offers sheer reading pleasure.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Born into a carnival family at the turn of the 20th century, 16-year-old Caressa Horvath finds her life taking a dramatic turn when she attempts to rob Jacob Bowman, a rich, eccentric anthropologist 20 years her senior. Nothing daunted by their unconventional introduction, he marries her, and they travel to Tripoli to explore the Sahara Desert. Nomadic Tuaregs attack their caravan but spare Caressa's life, launching her three-year adventure in the desert, where she befriends a young boy named Bakuli, gets sold into slavery, and eventually meets her great love, a wandering Scotsman named Jared MacKay. Gilman, noted for her Mrs. Pollifax mysteries, takes a slightly different direction here, producing a lively, satisfying novel of adventure, danger, and romance. A good choice for most popular fiction collections.
- Maria A. Perez-Stable, Western Michigan Univ. Libs., Kalamazoo
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 378 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Pr; Lrg edition (November 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560545283
• ISBN-13: 978-1560545286
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,519,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dorothy Gilman is the author of thirteen Mrs. Pollifax novels, beginning with The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax and continuing through Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist. She lives in Westport, Connecticut.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Take this trip; it's a stunner!, December 30, 2002

By 

dikybabe "admeyer" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Caravan (Mass Market Paperback)

Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax mysteries have delighted me. I am late in coming to them. They have been out for years. But I love the pattern of suspense and the new cultural treats that are in store for her readers. I always learn in a Gilman book. And her sense of respect for other ways of living, of relating to God and one another, enrich the tales she gives us.

I recently gleaned the shelves of Half-Price Books and found a few of her titles I had not read, among them was Caravan. And it is a true jewel of a tale.

One feels a bit like this character, a carny child sent to finishing school, is historical, a veritable Unsinkable Molly Brown, and yet the story, as told in retrospect by Lady Teal, encompasses only a small part of a very rich life. And what a vibrant small part that is!

Caressa's survival in the stark desert life of the early 1900's is impressive, and Gilman's finesse in presenting a foreign world and its pecularities make for suspenseful reading beyond the norm. One thing that Gilman never does is shy away from the brutal and the violent realities of her character's situations.

In the primitive 1914 imprisonment that Caressa faces among the conquering Tuareg tribesmen, there are an amazing set of obstacles that just shouldn't have been lived through. No Indiana Jones character could out do Caressa's challenges.

Most beautiful of all are the endearing friendships that she makes with the unusual likes of a fellow slave, a black boy, Bakuli, and earlier with Mohammed, her Arab host in Tripoli.

Delightful endings wrap up Gilman's books with happily ever after as their due. But one is not disappointed with Lady Teal's surprise to readers. In fact, one should have guessed such an ending would be in store.

Typical Gilman in some ways, but very nice escapist reading overall. Brava!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars When adventures were real, and the world unexplored, May 16, 2002

By 

C. B. Newman "moodindigo2" (Brisbane, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Caravan (Mass Market Paperback)

Love story. Epic. Adventure. Travel essay. There are many aspects and genres Gilman's novel "Caravan" can be attributed to. Perhaps it is its emotional and physical range that makes the novel so appealing to so many readers. I myself had never read a Dorothy Gilman novel before, but knew of her series of books, such as "The Nun In The Closet" which I began to read shortly after finishing this book.

The number of books I read every year has slowly been dwindling due to unseen circumstances, but of the books I have read this year, I am most grateful that I chose to read Caravan over the rest. Gilman's style and prose, though well researched and pleasant to read, might lack a certain degree of complexity, but she makes up for it with a plot and cast of characters that is unrivaled, say that of the classic epics.

Yet, what I found so alluring and intoxicating of Caravan, was the scenery and montage she depicts so aptly and vividly, that I too crossed the frigid desert at night; I was there in Tripoli, smothered by the smells and masses of people; I shared the campfire of Tauregs beneath a sea of a million stars. Gilman is able to transport the reader in a way that is magical, allowing you and I to feel the sorrow, joy, adventure, and love felt by Lady Treal.

My greatest dissapointment ... finding The Nun In The Closet, my 2nd Gilman novel, mediocre in comparison to the wonderful story of Caravan.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good enough to be read again and again!, August 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Caravan (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is a departure from Dorothy Gilman's typical Mrs. Polifax stories, but if you've enoyed those, you're sure to love this novel. I believe that this book is one of Gilman's finest. She writes on a higher level than in most of the Polifax mysteries: this tale is more in-depth, and builds the main character to such detail that we can hear what she hears, know what she thinks, and feel what she feels. Here Gilman reveals to us the character, rather than just telling us a story. This extraordinary character plunges into her life memories and takes us with her, and her recollections, which come alive again, are intriguing and touching.