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Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival |  | Author: Dean King
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.99
Buy Used: $0.61
as of 9/9/2010 09:18 PDT details
You Save: $14.38 (96%)
Seller: _beaglebooks_
Rating:  86 reviews
Sales Rank: 33466
Media: Paperback
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0316159352
Dewey Decimal Number: 916.48041
EAN: 9780316159357
ASIN: 0316159352
Publication Date: April 12, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780316159357 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Some stories are so enthralling they deserve to be retold generation after generation. The wreck in 1815 of the Connecticut merchant ship, Commerce, and the subsequent ordeal of its crew in the Sahara Desert, is one such story. With Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival, Dean King refreshes the popular nineteenth-century narrative once read and admired by Henry David Thoreau, James Fenimore Cooper, and Abraham Lincoln. Kings version, which actually draws from two separate first person accounts of the Commerce's crew, offers a page-turning blend of science, history, and classic adventure. The book begins with a seeming false start: tracing the lives of two merchants from North Africa, Seid and Sidi Hamet, who lose their fortunesand almost their liveswhen their massive camel caravan arrives at a desiccated oasis. King then jumps to the voyage of the Commerce under Captain Riley and his 11-man crew. After stops in New Orleans and Gibraltar, the ship falls off course en route to the Canary Islands and ultimately wrecks at the infamous Cape Bojador. After the men survive the first predations of the nomads on the shore, they meander along the coast looking for a way inland as their supplies dwindle. They subsist for days by drinking their own urine. Eventually, to their horror, they discover that they have come aground on the edge of the Sahara Desert. They submit themselves, with hopes of getting food and water, as slaves to the Oulad Bou Sbaa. After days of abuse, they are bought by Hamet, who, after his own experiences with his failed caravan (described at the novels opening), sympathizes with the plight of the crew. Together, they set off on a hellish journey across the desert to collect a bounty for Hamet in Swearah. King embellishes this compelling narrative throughout with scientific and historical material explaining the origins of the camel, the market for English and American slaves, and the stages of dehydration. He also humanizes the Sahrawi with background on the tribes and on the lives of Hamet and Seid. This material, doled out in sufficient amounts to enrich the story without derailing it makes Skeletons on the Zahara a perfectly entertaining bit of history that feels like a guilty pleasure. --Patrick O'Kelley
Product Description
Everywhere hailed as a masterpiece of historical adventure, this enthralling narrative recounts the experiences of twelve American sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Africa in 1815, captured by desert nomads, sold into slavery, and subjected to a hellish two-month journey through the bone-dry heart of the Sahara. The ordeal of these men - who found themselves tested by barbarism, murder, starvation, death, dehydration, and hostile tribes that roamed the desert on camelback - is made indelibly vivid in this gripping account of courage, brotherhood, and survival.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 86
 Facinating beyond belief August 14, 2010
An excellent book with many faces. A clash of cultures, religions, and geography illustrate the commom among people. I read it straight through. A true story of survival that is impossible to put down.
A Gritty Story that Will Make a Super Movie Someday June 28, 2010
Dave Mayer (Huntington Beach)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
In 1815 Captain James Riley and the crew of the United States merchant ship Commerce set sail from Connecticut for Gibraltar. Two months later they were shipwrecked near Cape Bojador, off the coast of Northern Africa, captured by Sahrawi Arabs, sold into slavery and dragged eight hundred miles across the hot and hostile Sahara Desert. Along the way they were fed meager rations and pressed into hard labor as the faced barbarism, murder, starvation, dehydration, scorpions, plagues of locusts, sandstorms, hostile enemies and death.
Also along the way they discovered secret oases and ancient cities as Captain Riley forged a surprising bond with a Muslim trader. They were forced to become allies in order to survive, even as Riley planed on betraying the trader in order to save his men.
Dean tells a disturbing, but true tale of endureance that finally came to an end when an Arab tribal leader brought the exhausted and emaciated men to the provincial trading post of Swearah where the British paid the ransom for their freedom.
This read like a pulse racing thriller. I know I couldn't put it down and I can't recommend it highly enough.
 A gripping account but incomplete May 8, 2010
A reader
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A very racy and edge of the seat account of the sufferings of the white slaves in Zahara by Dean King. King has left no stone unturned in his attempt to bring out the physical details of the sad adventures of the protagonist of the real story - Capt Riley. Many a time he ( King ) does a fact check on the narrative of the Captain which sometimes puts you off. King has gone to considerable length and expense to scientifically verify the accuracy of Riley's account. The graphic account of the geography and the lifestyles of the people in Zahara - all of which helped by the modern sophisticated technology - rivals the original and is praiseworthy.
Now we come to the crux of the matter on which ground alone , this book loses its 2 stars. In my opinion it only deserves 3 stars. In his sordid desert trek , Capt. Riley develops a strong and unshakeable faith in the Almighty and his entreaties to God are filled with pathos and feelings of utter surrender to the Almighty's will. The resignation by Riley to the divine designs form an integral part of the original account. Where are these details in King's book ? I realize that Iam touching on a deeper and contentious question, the discussion of which is out of the scope of this brief review. In a flash I realize that it is the curse of our times. Bereft of a belief in the Almighty and utterly dedicated to the material realities of the world , we cannot conceive of the grace, beauty and the strength of Riley's convictions that mainly helped him to overcome the Himalayan odds facing him. This lack of faith has made us a weak willed , indolent and lazy generation. It is highly questionable whether any modern man can weather these storms with the kind of fortitude and patience that Riley displayed. The discussion of this " spirit force " of the Captain is conspicuoulsy absent in King's book. And , that becomes the downfall of this otherwise classic masterpiece. We may even go as far as to say that the author Dean King has not been faithful to the original. If at all he is an atheist , he should have left this story of Riley alone for in my opinion Riley's strong belief in God shapes the character and heart of this real life story.
In one of the passages the agent of the savior , Bel Cossim remarks that Riley has been saved by God for some important purpose. Prophetic statement ! Within a span of five decades slavery was abolished in America. The book written by Capt. Riley about his privations and sufferings as a slave - which incidentally became the world's first known best seller - made a deep impact on the American President Lincoln's mind and caused him to set the slaves free. Thus Capt Riley's sufferings were vindicated.
Incredible, a must read January 25, 2010
Jamie V (Ohio United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have a love of reading true survival, history and adventure. This combines all three into one. Its almost like reading an adventure novel yet its a true story. I am surprised I had never even heard of Captain Riley before this.
Every American should know this story.
The author does an excellent job with taking Riley's original account and combining it with the account of one of the crew members. I could not put the book down.
Its amazing, sad, shocking, has some happy endings. It just really makes you appreciate what you have and our way of life, the things we do not have to worry or think about on a daily basis. (at least for me)
I think this needs to be made into a movie.
Wow December 19, 2009
Nancy (Phoenix, Arizona)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What an amazing story of courage, faith, and perseverence. I couldn't put it down. Normally, I prefer to read the books as written by the original author but Dean King did an amazing job of adding just the right amount of background information to help the reader understand the political and environmental forces the men of the Commerce were facing. This is a must have book for any collection. I can't wait to read it again.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 86
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