A Place of Meadows and Tall Trees

Overview

A commentary on an oppressive colonial system that people fled from in order to start a new life, this historical novel examines the hardships suffered by Welsh colonists who settled in Patagonia. Following a devastating sea journey, Silas James encounters a cold South American desert where nothing survives except the nomadic Tehuelche Indians—a tribe potentially intent on massacring the new arrivals. Fearing that he has been tricked into sacrificing everything for another man’s impossible dream, James, along with his fellow colonists, battles to survive hunger and loss. Under the influences of politically adept Edwyn Owen and the watchful eye of Indian shaman Yelue, James witnesses as a new culture begins to take root as an old one fades.

Reviews

"One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead is an imaginary memoir told through the voice of Wegener himself, as an old man reviewing his life. Dudman combines the current vogue for icebound adventure with the true-lives-of-the-scientists genre that Dava Sobel has made so popular." —Bruce Barcott on One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead, the New York Times

"Dudman artfully channels Wegener’s voice . . . so convincingly that her book reads like an artifact of Old World exploration." —the New Yorker

Author Biography

Clare Dudman is the author of 98 Reasons for Being and One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead, the editor of The Writers’ Workshop, and the recipient of a Kathleen Fidler Award.