The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep

Voices from the Donner Party

By: Allan Wolf

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Whitney Dykhouse, Teri Schnaubelt, Tim Gerard Reynolds, Lauren Ezzo, Eric G. Dove, Ramón de Ocampo, Shaun Taylor-Corbett

In powerful, vivid verse, the master behind The Watch That Ends the Night recounts one of history’s most harrowing - and chilling - tales of survival.

In 1846, a group of emigrants bound for California face a choice: continue on their planned route or take a shortcut into the wilderness. Eighty-nine of them opt for the untested trail, a decision that plunges them into danger and desperation and, finally, the unthinkable. From extraordinary poet and novelist Allan Wolf comes a riveting retelling of the ill-fated journey of the Donner party across the Sierra Nevadas during the winter of 1846-1847. Brilliantly narrated by multiple voices, including world-weary, taunting, and all-knowing Hunger itself, this novel-in-verse examines a notorious chapter in history from various perspectives, among them caravan leaders George Donner and James Reed, Donner’s scholarly wife, two Miwok Indian guides, the Reed children, a sixteen-year-old orphan, and even a pair of oxen. Comprehensive back matter includes an author’s note, select character biographies, statistics, a time line of events, and more. Unprecedented in its detail and sweep, this haunting epic raises stirring questions about moral ambiguity, hope and resilience, and hunger of all kinds.

©2020 Allan Wolf, original book published by Candlewick Press. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

YALSA's Top Ten 2021 Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults

"[T]his audiobook-in-verse about the ill-fated 1846 journey of Donner party is grounded by multiple perspectives. Leading the cast is Bahni Turpin, whose smooth performance as the omniscient narrator, Hunger, is all the more chilling for its grim, merciless edge.… Collectively, it's a grim, gripping, and haunting listen." - AudioFile Magazine

This was so good!

4.5 stars. This was absolutely fascinating. I’m slightly familiar with the history of The Donner Party (I read The Indifferent Stars Above in 2018, as well as the fictional The Hunger) and I loved how this was done. Bahni Turpin as the personification of Hunger was amazing (as always!) but all the narrators were really well done. This combined interesting truth with historical fiction, and was hard to put down.

Interesting

I love the way the story is told from multiple points of view. Definitely worth listening or reading

Incredible account of early American history

This is a perfect example of the type of information we should be teaching our kids in history class. Thanks for the lesson!

Could not listen to this book.

The book is so bad I don't know how it got published, well I only listened to about 2 hours, but lemonade one the Oregon Trail, who could believe that, also the narration is pretty bad. Don't waste your time or credit.

Audible needs a new hiring manager

I’m only 15 minutes in so this isn’t a complete rating, however, the voices are driving me mad. The only good voice actor so far is the young girl (can’t recall her name). The voice of hunger sounds as if Siri is reading to you and the van Ludwig (if that’s his name) voice actor’s accent is straight up embarrassing. Another...9 hours to go. X_X