|The River of Doubt

At once an incredible adventure narrative^{1 and a}

penetrating^{2 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 tributary³

of the Amazon that snakes through one of the

most treacherous^{4 jungles in the world. Indians}

armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its

shadows； piranhas glide^{5 through its waters；}

boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling⁶

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, C？ndido Mariano da Silva

Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished^{8 a feat7 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^{9 of suicide. The River of Doubt}

brings alive these extraordinary events in a

powerful nonfiction narrative thriller^{10 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^11.