About the Book
From the award-winning author of Eliza Waite comes a gripping tale of adventure and survival based on the true story of the ill-fated Donner Party on their 2,200-mile trek on the Oregon–California Trail from 1846 to ’47.
Nineteen-year-old Ada Weeks confronts danger and calamity along the hazard-filled journey to California. After a fateful decision that delays the overlanders more than a month, she—along with eighty-one other members of the Donner Party—finds herself stranded at Truckee Lake on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, stuck there for the entirety of a despairing, blizzard-filled winter. Forced to eat shoe leather and blankets to survive, will Ada be able to battle the elements—and her own demons—as she envisions a new life in California?
Researched with impeccable detail and filled with imagery as wide as the western prairie, Answer Creek blends history and hearsay in an unforgettable story of challenging the limits of human endurance and experiencing the triumphant power of love.
About the Author :
A native New Yorker, Ashley E. Sweeney is the winner of the Nancy Pearl Book Award and more than a dozen other awards for her previous novels, Hardland, Answer Creek, and Eliza Waite. The Irish Girl is based on her paternal great-grandmother’s story of coming alone from Ireland to America in the late nineteenth century. Sweeney lives and writes in the Pacific Northwest and Tucson.
Review :
2024 Kirkus Reviews' Best Indie Books of 2024
2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards: Historical Fiction, Other
2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY Awards):Gold Winner in West Mountain - Best Regional Fiction
2021 Next Generation Indies Book: Winner for Best Second Novel
2020 Arizona Authors Association Literary Award: Winner, Fiction
2021 Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award: Finalist, Best Novel
2020 WILLA Literary Award: Finalist, Historical Fiction
“The author is a master of vivid descriptions, dragging readers along every wretched mile of the trail, sharing every dashed hope and every dramatic confrontation, with Ada as their guide. Ada is a marvelous creation, twice orphaned and both hopeful and fearful about a new life in California, the promised land . . . A vivid westward migration tale with an arresting mixture of history and fiction.”
—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED, 2024 Kirkus Reviews' Best Indie Books of 2024
“Ada is every pioneer woman who accomplished more than she ever thought possible.“
—Booklist
“Ada is an impressive heroine who thinks for herself and exhibits moral courage in dire straits . . . [the novel] succeeds at capturing the endurance of the human spirit.”
—Publishers Weekly
“ . . . this book captivated me. With its rich sensory details and the varied humanity of its characters, this book is a must-read for fans of historical fiction, and for anyone looking for insight into a period that carved and honed people down to their core.”
—Seattle Book Review
“ . . . a gripping story of loss, survival, and female strength. Sweeney does such a masterful job of evoking the journey, from the shifting challenges of the landscape the emigrants move through to the emotional complications of being dependent for survival on people who were strangers months or even just weeks before. The epic sweep, the vast scale, of the trek is vividly felt, but so are the smallest of details.”
—Society Nineteen Journal, 5/5 stars
“ . . . .a fascinating historical novel, aimed at anyone interested in the struggles of pioneers, especially the Donner-Reed Party. I will certainly look for more novels by this author.”
—Reader's Favorite “Sweeney immerses the reader in the time and place, giving a brilliant picture of daily trail life, particularly from a woman’s perspective….Stronger still is Ada’s character development. Always scrappy and resourceful, Ada develops a grit and determination on the trail that serves her well….Sweeney deftly gives readers a feel for the horrible choices some members of the Donner Party had to make and is careful to preserve the humanity that is too often removed from histories....” —Historical Novels Review “So well researched, one can almost feel the cold of winter and the stifling pain inflicted upon the heart and soul of these courageous pioneers.”
—K.S. Jones, award-winning author of Shadow of the Hawk
“With faultlessly authentic period detail and relentless, riveting twists of fate, Answer Creek puts the reader right on the Oregon-California Trail in every sensory and emotional aspect imaginable. This compassionate but utterly realistic telling of the story gently crushes the sensationalized versions and releases something that feels much closer to truth. Ada is hope personified—it takes wing, soars, crashes—and survives.”
—Ellen Notbohm, award-winning author of The River by Starlight
“In Answer Creek, Sweeney rescues the story of the Donner Party from its fate as salacious anecdote and delivers a harrowing tale of resilience, folly, loss, and hope.”
—Mary Volmer, author of Reliance, Illinois
“Ada Weeks is an unforgettable character, authentic and true, created by the deft hands of author Ashley Sweeney. Together they provide a possible answer to the question ‘how might I fare in a time of trial?’ But this is only one question of Answer Creek. Full of distinctive language, fresh images of overland travel, and the challenge of choices, Ada Weeks is a woman to cheer for while we explore our own journeys toward meaning no matter the century nor trail. Be prepared to burn the night oil to discover more.”
—Jane Kirkpatrick, award-winning author of One More River to Cross
“Answer Creek is brilliant, masterfully written.”
—Frances Simmons, editor
“If there can be beauty in horror, Sweeney has managed it in the writing of this book. Doom hovers on every page—in the sunsets of the western sky, in emaciated cattle, in boots worn down to shreds—yet the human spirit radiantly perseveres in the form of young Ada Weeks, who is determined to find love despite an avalanche of losses and sorrows. Her harrowing physical and psychological journey grips the reader in a tightly woven web of suspense. Impeccably researched, Answer Creek is a triumphant re-telling of a mythic American tragedy.”
—Laurel Davis Huber, author of The Velveteen Daughter, winner of the Langum Prize for American Historical Fiction
“Intimate, engrossing, and personal—this novel is so much more than the story of the Donner Party. It is the story of a budding young woman: her loves, her hopes, and her generous spirit in the midst of an unfolding tragedy. As I read this engrossing novel I forgot I knew—or thought I knew—the story that inspired it. Sweeney captures both the highs and lows of human behavior with each gripping scene.”
—Martha Conway, author of The Underground River
