The Fugitive Wife: A Novel [Paperback]

Peter C. Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 17, 2007

“All about passion, whether for . . . romance or adventure, this sweeping debut renders poetically the dynamics of desire.”—Kirkus Reviews

The year is 1900 in gold-prospecting Alaska. Essie, a Midwestern farm girl fleeing from a stormy marriage, joins up with prospectors bound for Nome, where the golden sands teem with dreamers, schemers, and high rollers. When Leonard, Essie's stubborn and volatile husband, travels north, astonishing scenes of pursuit, sacrifice, and crucial decision rise to a conclusion that is both surprising and inevitable. Powerfully evoking a past world and the variable territory of the heart, this novel establishes Peter C. Brown as a consummate storyteller. Reading group guide included.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The 1900 gold rush to Nome, Alaska, sweeps up Esther (Essie) Crummey, the resilient and pragmatic title character of this evocative historical novel, Brown's promising debut. A Minnesota farm girl, Essie marries a drifter named Leonard Crummey, a volatile man burdened by a painful past. They begin a life together on their own fledgling farm, but the birth of a deformed son, Gabriel, and the devastation of their farm by a flood turn Leonard into a "hard husband." His alcoholism and unilateral decision to sell much of their land corrodes their marriage. After further disaster, Essie leaves. Headed for her sister's in Seattle, Essie helps in a dockside accident on a Nome-bound ship, an intervention through which she meets Nate Deaton, the earnest, East Coast–educated young foreman for the Cape Nome Company. He hires her for the Nome venture, and mutual respect and conversation draw them together despite their varied backgrounds. But a beleaguered, die-hard Leonard follows his wife to Nome, where he threatens the budding devotion between Nate and Essie. This is an eloquent, memorable first novel, with high-powered characters whose prickly exteriors, created out of the need to survive, hide affectingly yearning and haunted souls. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

After a tragic barn fire kills her son, farm-girl Esther flees her difficult marriage. The year is 1900, and Esther winds up being hired to take care of horses on their way to the Alaska gold rush. On the boat to Alaska, Esther befriends a college-educated black woman, a prospector, and Nate, the foreman of the gold company that hired her. Once in Alaska, all begin to find a new way of living in the world. Unlike many historical novels about women that fall prey to an anachronistic form of feminism and multiculturalism, Esther's thoughts and actions seem realistic to both her character and the time period. The novel is also free of stereotypes. An unusual time frame adds a sense of mystery and helps propel the plot forward. A smooth and interesting read. Marta Segal
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (January 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393329755
• ISBN-13: 978-0393329759
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,215,896 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Fabulous Novel, April 9, 2006

By 

Donna Cousins (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fugitive Wife: A Novel (Hardcover)

There is so much to savor here I know I'll read THE FUGITIVE WIFE again. With the authority of careful research and the grace of a gifted storyteller, Peter Brown gives us a window to history, a love triangle, an unforgettable tale.

He parcels out the narrative, telling just enough to make the three main characters, Essie, Nate and Leonard, vivid and compelling, while holding back pieces we're both itching and afraid to know. We meet Guppy Totman, Plug Jefferson and so many other zany souls, Charles Dickens could take a lesson. Brown guides us expertly through century-old worlds of farming, trapping, chicken husbandry, mining and more. His language is rich and in tune with its time, and I stopped often to read a beautifully crafted paragraph twice, or three times.

"Abiding." Watch for this pitch-perfect, one-word sentence. The countless, lyrical phrases Brown finds to describe the sky, water, ships setting sail. Nuggets of heart-baring insight, dug deep from emotionally restrained characters. And humor. You will laugh out loud at the "five erect fingers of mortuary fortune," and more.

I'll warn you: a very creepy snake inhabits this novel. And, like the rest of THE FUGITIVE WIFE, Peter Brown brings it masterfully to life.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Great American Story, April 29, 2006

By 

Ellen F. Lowery (White Bear Lake, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fugitive Wife: A Novel (Hardcover)

The Fugitive Wife is a rewarding saga reminiscent in some ways of great American stories of the nineteenth century such as Moby Dick, or The Scarlet Letter. It is a story rich in historical detail, with complicated and flawed characters wrestling with passions, adversities, and moral dilemmas. The author, Peter Brown, creates vivid visual scenes for the reader and more important has a great gift for hearing and rendering his characters' unique voices. The story is principally that of Essie who bears with and then finally leaves the husband who has near ruined her life. She casts her lot with men and women forging a way in a new frontier. But the story is also about the man left behind, his anguish and the shadow it casts on the future.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars character is destiny, April 8, 2006

By 

the cornered poet (Amherst, MA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fugitive Wife: A Novel (Hardcover)

"A little curl had come into his voice like the creeper on a bittersweet." 'The Fugitive Wife' glides along on this kind of simple, elegant, and haunting prose; rich period details bring the story to life, and good old fashioned yarn-spinning (a la Ken Kesey) make it a pleasure to read. But it is the characters themselves- Nate, Essie, the gold-rush city of Nome, and above all Leonard Crummey, who make it impossible to put down. Beg, buy, or borrow this book and enjoy the ride.