Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for The Wild Girl by Jim Fergus - Available

The Wild Girl

The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932

by Jim Fergus
Christian Baskous
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available

When Ned Giles is orphaned as a teenager, he heads West hoping to leave his troubles behind by joining the 1932 Great Apache Expedition on their search for the young son of a wealthy Mexican landowner who was kidnapped by wild Apaches. But the expedition's goal becomes compromised when they encounter a wild Apache girl in a Mexican jail cell, victim of a Mexican massacre of her tribe that has left her orphaned and unwilling to eat or speak. Ned's growing feelings for the troubled girl soon force him to choose allegiances and make a decision that will haunt him forever. Based on historical fact, Jim Fergus takes readers on a journey of magnificent sweep and heartbreaking consequence.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 11, 2006

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780792741053
      • File size: 361059 KB
      • Duration: 12:32:12

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Newly orphaned 17-year-old Ned Giles leaves Chicago to join the 1932 Great Apache Expedition, a search for a young boy who was kidnapped by Apaches. Narrator Chris Baskous creates a disparate cast of characters with a myriad of accents. This historical novel guides readers through a dark period in American history, replete with heartbreaking prejudice and breath-snatching violence. Listeners who sign on for the journey across the desert Southwest will find themselves swept up in the challenges faced by these unforgettable characters. This is one of those instances when the audiobook version is more affecting than listening to the voices in your head, so vivid are the characterizations. R.O. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from March 28, 2005
      Depicting the dusty Depression-era West this grandly, cinematically imagined sweat- and bloodstained saga, inspired by events that took place in Arizona and south of the border in the Sierra Madre badlands, dramatizes latter-day conflicts between whites and Native Americans. During the fall of 1999, an obscure, financially struggling photographer, Ned Giles—now in his early 80s—sells, for $30,000, La Niña Bronca
      , his only copy of a photo of a young Apache girl lying on the rude floor of a Mexican jail cell; the buyer's curiosity about the picture's provenance sparks Ned's memories. The rest of the book, set in 1932, reveals a legacy of heroism and lost love through Ned's scrupulously detailed diaries, which vividly recount a nightmare of harrowing misadventures beginning the day he signs on to be a part of the Great Apache Expedition, one of dozens of men hoping to free the son of a wealthy Mexican rancher kidnapped by the Apaches. (The wild Apache girl will be used as ransom.) The narrative unfolds as a series of flashbacks, intermingling short passages from the third-person POV of the fierce Apache girl and first-person excerpts from the diaries of the 17-year-old Chicagoan photographer on his first big assignment. Fergus (One Thousand White Women
      ) makes unforgettable characters move against vivid landscapes in this laudable encore. Agent, Al Zuckerman at Writers House
      . 5-city author tour
      .

    • Library Journal

      January 1, 2005
      Ned Giles hops onto the 1932 Great Apache Expedition and finds love and hard decisions in the wilds of the West. Apparently based on historical fact; from the author of One Thousand White Women. Simultaneous Hyperion hardcover.

      Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Funding for additional materials was made possible by a grant from the New Hampshire Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.