Hungry: The Inspiring Tale of Three Donner Party Survivors

In 1847, the Donner party resorted to eating human flesh to survive entrapment at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains. They became infamous almost instantly, with hundreds of books, stories, and interviews exploring their misery. None them tell the extraordinary story from the first-person point of view of the female survivors.

Until now.

Three women yearned to make better lives in California:

Nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Graves set out west with her family in search of a home that would be free of disease like the ague that had afflicted her mother and sisters for years. If she met a handsome guy along the way, well, she wouldn’t complain. As the belle of the Donner party, she certainly had plenty of interest.

Peggy Breen had just given birth to her seventh child, but she wasn’t afraid of the two-thousand-mile journey toward prosperity. She’d take care of her children and honor her husband along the trail, because that’s what women of faith did. But when supplies became limited, her giving heart and her mother’s instinct were at odds.

Virginia Blackstone Reed, the thirteen-year-old daughter of the group’s leader, set out in search of adventure, riding her sassy palomino pony alongside the largest double-decker wagon anyone had ever seen. As the adopted daughter of the most influential and prosperous man in the wagon train, she had no idea at the start that her polarizing father with his ostentatious wealth would pave the way for their future devastation.

By the time these women and the rest of the party reached the Sierra Nevada mountains after taking an unproven “shortcut,” they were already two months late. They had lost people, oxen, mules, and livestock they couldn’t survive without. Then the snow began to fall.

And it didn’t stop.

Hungry follows the tenacious protagonists and their miraculous rescue as they fight the elements and one another, highlighting the strength that kept them going when most of us would have been defeated.

Kirkus Reviews said of Hungry, “The story’s historical verisimilitude is magisterial—the author’s research is simply impeccable. This is much more than a recitation of historical facts, though—Baker brings to terrifying life the cruel proximity of hope and barbarism, and the unspeakable things people will do to survive and to save their own. This is a stunning glimpse into a vanished time in American history when every obstacle seemed surmountable and progress assured, despite the awesome danger that lurked everywhere.”

Publisher's Weekly said, "Hungry is a fine-tuned novelization of the infamous Donner party and their 19th century ordeal told from the fictionalized POV of three women. It's clear from the get-go that Baker is familiar with the history behind the events, and the dramatization of the circumstances offers a lush reading experience. Baker 's prose is excellent; she is able to bring lively voice to three very different characters, all long dead, and her descriptions are wondrous. Baker skillfully shapes her courageous heroines, providing them with depth, humanity, and grace as they endure the unimaginable. The author also does a fine job with the many side characters from this chapter of history. The result is an exhausting, exhilarating book showcasing astonishing human endurance."

Keywords: Historical fiction; survival stories; true stories of history; historical fiction America; cannibalism; cannibals; historical horror; survival fiction; historical survival story; historical fiction mid-nineteenth century; manifest destiny; pioneers; tragedy story.