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Nathaniel is survived by Elizabeth, by his children Luke, Hannah, Lily, Daniel, Gabriel, and Birdie, and their spouses, by twelve grandsons and eleven granddaughters, and eight great-grandchildren, and by many
friends. He was preceded in death by his parents, his infant sister Alice, his first wife Sarah, his infant children James, Robert, Michael, and Emmanuel, his daughter-in-law Jennet Scott Bonner, son-in-law Simon Ballentyne, and his granddaughters Mairead Ballentyne and Fiona Scott Bonner.

On the last day of his life, Nathaniel rose at dawn and spent a full day helping his grandsons make repairs to the meetinghouse. In the evening he ate alone with his wife, a simple meal of soup, cornbread, and cobbler made with the first apples of the season.

PARADISE SUN
Light for All
January 1, 1844

As all of Paradise’s citizens are aware by now, Mrs. Elizabeth Middleton Bonner passed away yesterday after a short illness. She was eighty-one.

Mrs. Bonner left explicit instructions that she wanted no obituary, and requested instead that we print this statement written by her own hand on the day before her death. As a lifelong author of hundreds of editorials, articles, and essays on politics, education, abolition, and the rights of women that appeared in newspapers all over England and the United States, we at the
Paradise Sun
—the only newspaper she founded—are honored to comply.

30th December in the Year 1843

To my dear family and friends,

The facts of my life are well known to those who have reason to be interested in such things and need not be recorded again here.

My life, as extraordinarily full and happy as it has been, did not truly begin until December of 1792, when I arrived in Paradise and met Nathaniel. Neither of us will ever leave you as long as you remember our stories and pass them on. I relegate this right and responsibility to our children and grandchildren, who brought both of us great joy and fulfillment.

I trust you will miss me, but I hope you will not mourn me
for long. Each day is unique and precious, a coin to be spent thoughtfully. Waste nothing and your regrets will be few.

The young cannot imagine death and for that reason they fear it. I am not afraid of death. I greet it as anyone who has a long and satisfying day’s work behind them greets sleep.

I have loved the stars too well to fear the night.

Elizabeth Middleton Bonner

Author’s Note

When I was writing
Fire Along the Sky
, the fourth novel in this series, I asked Diana Gabaldon if she had found the fourth in her Outlander series hardest.

No, she shot back immediately. The fifth is.

She was, of course, writing her fifth at the time. This is more evidence of a phenomenon well known to those who make a living telling stories: Fiction writing is one of the few things you can do with your life that doesn’t get easier as you go along. To provide balance to that unfortunate truth, the writing of fiction is enormously satisfying after the fact.

At the end of this series I am as confident as I can be that I have told Elizabeth’s story, but I also find myself confronted with an unavoidable truth: I cannot possibly name all the people who have helped me in one way or another along the line. In the sure knowledge that I am leaving out many who deserve to be mentioned here, I would like to thank:

  • my editors at Bantam, first Wendy McCurdy and then Shauna Summers, and Nita Taublib, who stuck with the story when it wasn’t clear it would ever take off;

  • my agent, Jill Grinberg, my own personal buoy in the rough seas of publishing;

  • Jill’s kids, for giving me a reason to spend time thinking about monkeys;

  • the librarians and researchers and experts who took time to answer often ridiculous questions, or to point me in the right direction to find those answers for myself;

  • Pokey Bolton, the very first reader to ever introduce herself to me, for her enthusiasm and early support;

  • Lynn Viehl, who read this manuscript again and again and never threw it at me—her help was invaluable;

  • Kaera Hallahan, wherever she disappeared to, for encouragement at a crucial juncture;

  • Penny and Suzanne, the best accidental sisters ever;

  • the other participants at the now defunct CompuServe Writers Forum, who were by turns blindly supportive and constructively critical;

  • Rachel Gorham, for her help with matters technical and not-so;

  • Judith Henrickson, for her tireless work on the Wilderness Wiki;

  • the editors at Baronage Press, most especially William, for the back-story research that made
    Dawn on a Distant Shore
    more historical than fantastical;

  • Kathy Jones, genealogy queen, who made sense of the Wilderness universe in ways that were endlessly helpful and sometimes surprising;

  • Katey Burchette, who runs a book-discussion website with unparalleled panache and exactitude;

  • dozens of other regular visitors and commenters at my author weblog, including but not limited to Pam Shaw, Rachel Auclair, Carol Baughman, Bruce McCorrister, Kenzie, Robyn-the-MySpace-guru, Meredith Rigter;

  • the original Women of the Wilderness from the first discussion board.

Thank you, one and all.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

S
ARA
D
ONATI
is the pen name of Rosina Lippi, under which she won the PEN/Hemingway Award for her novel
Homestead
. The first five novels in the Wilderness series—including
Into the Wilderness, Dawn on a Distant Shore, Lake in the Clouds, Fire Along the Sky
, and
Queen of Swords
—have more than one million copies in print.

The Endless Forest
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2010 by Sara Donati

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

D
ELACORTE
P
RESS
is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Donati, Sara.
The endless forest : a novel / Sara Donati.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-440-33902-1
1. New York (State)—History—1775–1865—Fiction. 2. Families—Fiction.
3. Frontier and pioneer life—Fiction. 4. Domestic fiction.
5. Psychological fiction. I. Title.
PS3554.O46923E53 2010
813′.54—dc22        20009035381

www.bantamdell.com

Map by Laura Hartman Maestro

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