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Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
by Candice Millard
At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt's harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.
The River of Doubt—it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its shadows; piranhas glide through its waters; boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling cauldron.
After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil's most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever.
Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived. From the soaring beauty of the Amazon rain forest to the darkest night of Theodore Roosevelt's life, here is Candice Millard's dazzling debut.
What was the last novel you read that was set primarily in a Latin American country?
I know I've mentioned this book before under other categories but it is worth another shout out here: River of Doubt by Candice Millard. This book about Theodore Roosevelt's expedition to chart an uncharted tributary of the Amazon River in Brazil is true but unbelievable.
-Connie_K
What’s the best nonfiction book you read in 2025?
River of Doubt by Candice Millard is an amazing read about Theodore Roosevelt and entourage discovering the uncharted Amazon River. You've never read roughing it quite like this. She also intertwines his personal life and makes this president I knew nothing of, very real. Also The Death and Life ...
-Connie_K
What's your favorite biography?
My book club read The River of Doubt by Candice Millard earlier this year. It's an "adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait of Theodore Roosevelt." None of us knew very much about his p...
-Connie_K
Good nonfiction books for book clubs?
...a Woman by Robert Massie The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot *The Boys in the Boat by Daniel Brown *Being Mortal by Atul Gawande *The River of Doubt by Candice Millard *A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell *Into the Magic Shop by James Doty MD Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
-Patricia_Williams
"A rich, dramatic tale that ranges from the personal to the literally earth-shaking." —The New York Times
"[A] fine account ... There are far too many books in which a travel writer follows in the footsteps of his or her hero—and there are far too few books like this, in which an author who has spent time and energy ferreting out material from archival sources weaves it into a gripping tale." —The Washington Post
This information about The River of Doubt was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Candice Millard is a former writer and editor at National Geographic magazine. She lives in Kansas City.
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