The Indifferent Stars Above

I knew enough about this harrowing tragedy and it was still not enough to prepare me when the Donner Party eventually becomes stranded. This heartbreaking, riveting and complicated story (due to the idea of Manifest Destiny and it's effect on the indigenous people at the time) was hard to put down. You follow Sarah Fosdick, a new bride, through a journey along 87 other families who try to make their way to California, and the foils of traversing new lands bring to many. The book is supported by letters and accounts of those who also made the journey and the physiological and psychological evidence to support the choices made by so many desperate to survive.

I'm a sucker for some historical fiction and this did not disappoint.