The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep: Voices from the Donner Party

In a stroke of brilliance, Hunger serves as a Greek chorus throughout the book. The hunger for food becomes the characters’ primary focus once the expedition goes figuratively south. But this narrative device also cleverly speaks to the many motivations of various Donner party members, including hunger for land, prestige, love, warmth and closeness to God. Although the surviving members of the group are eventually rescued, nothing is tied up with a neat and tidy bow. To his credit, Wolf does not sensationalize this story’s numerous tragedies, nor spare the reader illuminating details. The…

Wolf applies the same narrative treatment he expertly deployed in The Watch That Ends the Night (2011) to another infamous tragedy, that of the Donner Party...Wolf stokes empathy in the reader for these most unfortunate travelers, and those whose fascination is also sparked will want to dig into the book’s back matter, which is packed with historical notes, biographies, stats, a time line, and resources on the Donner Party. Another bone-chilling, unshakable success by Wolf.

Novelist-poet Wolf (The Watch that Ends the Night), using pacing that mimics the travelers' ratcheting plight, crafts a vivid story that humanizes the complicated episode it relates...Acknowledging the white presumptuousness of manifest destiny, Wolf honors the Miwok and their land, on which the Donner Party camped, as well as many of the tribal nations scarred by such wagon trips. Thoughtfully designed, ample white space evokes the bleakness of that interminable winter...An impressive, albeit woeful, slice of American history that older middle grade readers will sink their teeth into.

“Meticulously researched, increasingly more compelling with every page, and stunningly imagined, this journey with the Donner party details the grim reality endured by eighty-plus souls from April 1846 to April 1847 during their tragic attempt to reach the west coast. The reader is drawn in, becomes a member of the party, and endures the hardships and desperation along with the struggling travelers. As we face challenges in a contentious world rife with illness, suspicion, and fear, we should look to this book to illuminate the struggle to retain our hard-won humanity.”

“Magnificent, apocalyptic, tender, and meticulous, The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep traverses all that it means to be human and all that it takes to survive.”

“In a nearly athletic feat of craft and imagination, Allan Wolf guides us on a trail whose final stop is the darkest part of our own humanity. What would I have done? we are forced to ask. This is a brave, important book, powerful in its effect and deep in its perception of the many faces of Hunger. An essential read for these times.”