358 pages / 11 hrs, 30 mins
"Alaska was as remote as the moon, as roistering and lawless as the Gold Rush. And a pretty young schoolteacher from Colorado like Anne Hobbs was even rarer than nuggets."
"The author tells the story as told to him by Anne Hobbs, a woman who went to Alaska in the 1920s to teach, but who had trouble due to her kindness to the Indians there. Anne Hobbs is a prim and proper 19-year-old schoolteacher who yearns for adventure. She finds this and much more in a town with the unlikely name of Chicken, located deep in the Alaskan interior. It is 1927 and Chicken is a wild mining community flaming with gold fever. Anne quickly makes friends with many of the townspeople, but is soon ostracized when she not only befriends the local Indians but also falls in love with one."
This is quite a story lived by an incredibly resilient teenager. Specht does an outstanding job writing with all the awe, wonder, and drama Anne experienced. I recommend it to anyone looking for a first-person account of the harsh Alaskan weather and the prejudice of the 1920s. I give is 4.5 stars our of 5.
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