All True Not a Lie in It

<p>The story of pioneer Daniel Boone's life told in his voice--a tall tale like no other startling funny poignant romantic and brawling--set during the American Revolutionary War</p><p>Here is Daniel Boone as you've never seen him: debut novelist Alix Hawley presents Boone's life from his childhood in a Quaker colony through two stints captured by Indians as he attempted to settle Kentucky the death of a son at the hands of the same Indians and the rescue of a daughter. The prose rivals Hilary Mantel's and Peter Carey's conveying that sense of being inside the head of a storied historical figure about which much nonsense is spoken while also feeling completely contemporary.</p><p>Boone was a fabulous hunter and explorer and a white Indian perhaps happiest when he found a place as the captive adopted son of a chief who was trying to prevent the white settlement of Kentucky. Hawley takes us intimately into the life-and-death survival of people pushing away from security and into Indian lands despite sense and treaties just before and into the War of Independence. </p><p>The love story between Boone and his wife Rebecca is rich and tangled but mostly it's Boone who fascinates pushing into places where he imagines he can create a new clean world only to find death and trouble and complication. He is a fabulous character unrivaled in North American literature and a prime candidate for the tall tale. The storytelling is taut and expert the descriptions rich and powerful the prose full of feeling but Boone is what drives this outstanding debut.</p>