OR

Kindle Price:	$9.99
Sold by:	Amazon.com Services LLC

Promotions apply when you purchase

Read with our free app

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Follow the author

Jane Galer

+ Follow

More books from this author

The Navigator's Wife Kindle Edition

by Jane Galer (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

3.4 15 ratings

See all formats and editions

A surprising tale of the struggle for survival, The Navigator’s Wife is the fictionalized true story of the 1808 shipwreck of the Russian fur trade explorer ship Sv. Nikolai, aground off the isolated coast of the Olympic Peninsula, and the capture of its entire crew including the young wife of the navigator, Anna Petrovna Bulygin, by Makah native people. Anna’s struggle to survive in alien and harsh circumstances, the choices she makes, and the insistence with which she masters her environment make her a heroine for all time. Galer’s vivid prose has been compared to Joseph Conrad or Jack London. Fleshing the skeleton of the scant factual information, this true event combines adventure, little known history, and a cross cultural love story.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

After the survivors of the Sv. Nikolai's shipwreck returned to Sitka in 1810, expedition leader Timofei Tarakanov described their experiences to a visiting Russian naval officer. That description, originally published in a Russian naval journal, has become the basis for all later retellings of the story. Author Jane Galer has now adroitly placed this straightforward narrative within a broad social and cultural setting, reimagining these events primarily from a feminine perspective. Her heroine is Anna Petrovna, married to the incompetent, ailing ship's navigator. Soon Anna's capture by the Makah people leads her to a complete cultural and personal switch of loyalties. In exploring this remarkable change, Galer's writing is skillful, her plotting is ingenious, and her sympathetic amplification of Anna Petrovna's story makes this volume a wonderful literary adventure.-Ken Owens, author of The Wreck of the Sv. Nikolai

About the Author

Jane Galer holds a BA in philosophy and religion, an MA in material culture studies, and a Certificate in Museum Curation for Anthropologists. An award-winning poet, Galer has published two books of poetry, Too Deep for Tears and The Spirit Birds, the memoir How I Learned to Smoke: An American Girl in Iran, and Becoming Hummingbird: Charting Your Life Journey the Shaman's Way. She lives in northern California with her family.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B008YON9WA
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Long Nights Press (August 1, 2012)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 1, 2012
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 707 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 331 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #3,021,892 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #768 in Historical Russian Fiction
- #235,435 in Historical Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
3.4 15 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Jane Galer

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Jane Galer (1948- ) holds a BA in philosophy, an MA in material culture studies, and is a master shaman of the Q'ero tradition of Peru. She has published the novel The Navigator's Wife, two chapbooks of poetry, Too Deep for Tears and The Spirit Birds and the poetry collections Outskirts, the memoir, How I Learned to Smoke: An American Girl in Iran, and the non-fiction work Becoming Hummingbird: Charting Your Life Journey the Shaman's Way.

Customer reviews

3.4 out of 5

15 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

CLong

The Navigator's Wife, a fascinating journey

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2012

Verified Purchase

The characters and their stories are enticingly compelling; the pace of the writing is swift and exciting. Anna, a young Russian wife, ignorant of life yet filled with expectations; The Navigator, an incompetent captain and husband; the crew, an interesting lot; shipwrecked off the Olympic Coast, in a land hostile to them. Facts originally published in a Russian Naval journal, reimagined in a magnificent narrative that carries the reader through incredible life-changing events; and ultimately leaves one turning the last page and wanting to know more about these survivors. History provides the outline, and Jane Galer takes us on a truly wondrous literary adventure. The 'Afterword' gives us hope of a sequel.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Leo Buckmaster

One Star

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2017

Verified Purchase

No one in our book club liked this book. I wouldn't recommend it.

Helpful

Rosalie Scott

A good read. An interesting snapshot of tribal life in ...

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2014

Verified Purchase

A good read. An interesting snapshot of tribal life in the early 1800's and of the inate survival skills of the main characters. It would have been great to have a map so read with an atlas nearby.

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2012

Verified Purchase

I found The Navigators Wife to be a well written, wonderfully paced, adventure ....hard to put down.... refreshing to read a survival tale that emphasizes making choices about identity, loyalty, and adapting to circumstance instead of being victimized by inability to adjust to sudden sociocultural change. The characters are subtly developed and believable..the ending truthful......I will be looking forward to more from this author

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

ChuckG

Navigator,s Wife

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2012

Verified Purchase

This is a fascinating blend of real history in the period when the Russians were trying to set up a base and colony (Fort Ross), an ethnographically accurate depiction of the lives of the Northwest First People, and a wonderfully imagined internal monologue of a white woman coping with an extreme case of culture shock when her husband's ship runs aground.

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2012

Verified Purchase

This is a very good book. Its well written and gets you right into the story. She doesn't waste pages and pages with minutia but keeps the story moving. Historical novels are my favorite type of book and would recommend this to any one who enjoys a good book.

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2012

Verified Purchase

This is a wonderfully written novel. It was hard to put down. The characters became real and the history lesson was fascinating. The book flowed and I look forward to the sequel!

Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2021

I enjoyed this book more than anything that I have read recently! Not only did it provide a sensitive look at another culture and time, but it included a narrative that moved steadily and was always engaging. I also found myself caring about the characters, who were uniformly well drawn. The anthropological and historical detail was informative, but not overbearing, and these elements were smoothly woven into the narrative. In short, it was a compelling story that was different from most of what is out there. I could also envision it as a gift option for a broad range of readers should you be looking for something to give for the holidays. Recommended highly.

OR

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the author

Image Unavailable

The Navigator's Wife Kindle Edition

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Jane Galer

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.