All True Not a Lie in It

by Alix Hawley

This book is by a Kelowna Author.  It has been getting a lot of acclaim and is on the Giller Prize longlist this year, deservedly so.

The book is about Daniel Boone, told in the first person.  It is about his early life as a young man, then on into the years where he marries and tries to settle down.  But he is always restless to be out on the land and hunting.  So even when he and his wife get settled he often moves her on.

He like many other adventurers at the time are trying to encroach further into Indian territory in the west.  Boone wants to settle down in Kentucky.  It seems to beckon him.  The Indians of course are fighting back, at one point they capture his daughter and some other girls and Boone and others have to go rescue them.

In the latter part of the book Boone and others have set up a rickety fort.  They leave their wives and families behind and head off hunting but are captured by some Shawnee.   Most of the men are treated as slaves but for some reason the chief adopts Boone as his replacement son.  Although he attaches a guard to him so he won't escape.  Boone's people consider him their leader and are angry at him for not figuring out how they can escape.  At one point Boone's "father" takes Boone and some of his friends to a British general.  The others are sold but Boone's father refuses to sell him.  They bartered the me for goods.  Boone doesn't seem to feel much if any remorse for the loss/possible death of these people that looked up to him.

A black man living with the Indian's urges Boone to escape with him.  But Boone chooses not to do this.  The black man then tells the chief that  Boone was thinking of escaping and he is imprisoned for a time.  He eventually is wed to an Indian woman.

He is haunted by the thoughts of dead family members, and thinks of his first wife and family sometimes but not enough to want to escape.  He does live in fear that he will be asked to lead the Indians to the fort and that will result in a massacre.  Only at the end of the book does he attempt to return.  But we do not find out what has happened to his wife and daughters.

This is an incredible book, the level of detail of the life and conditions is amazing.  An incredible amount of research must have gone into it.  The author gives so much detail you can see, feel and smell everything about what life would have been like at the time.