The River of Doubt

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An incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, this true story recounts Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth—a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon. This treacherous river is fraught with dangers, from Indians wielding poison-tipped arrows to piranhas lurking in its waters and boulder-strewn rapids transforming it into a roiling cauldron. Following his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt sought the ultimate physical challenge: the first descent of this unmapped, rapids-choked tributary. Accompanied by his son Kermit and Brazil’s renowned explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt achieved a feat that many doubted at the time, forever altering the map of the western hemisphere. Throughout their journey, Roosevelt and his team faced a harrowing series of challenges, losing canoes and supplies to fierce rapids, enduring starvation, disease, and attacks, and even confronting a murder within their ranks. Three men perished, and Roosevelt was pushed to the brink of suicide. This powerful nonfiction narrative thriller vividly captures these extraordinary events, showcasing both the beauty of the Amazon rain forest and the darkest moments of Roosevelt’s life, marking Candice Millard’s dazzling debut.