At once an incredible adventure narrative¹ and a

　　penetrating² 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 treacherous⁴ jungles in the world. Indians

　　armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its

　　shadows； piranhas glide⁵ 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 accomplished⁸ 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 brink⁹ of suicide. The River of Doubt

　　brings alive these extraordinary events in a

　　powerful nonfiction narrative thriller¹⁰ 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 debut¹¹.