Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
The subtitle for this book (well, my copy at least) says on the front, "A novel of revenge". It also defines the term "revenant" as "Someone who returns, as if from the dead".
Without giving too much away about the plot, these two terms describe the novel very well.
The story is set in the 1800s and follows a group of men who work for some kind of fur company. It wasn't particularly clear to me what they were doing in the wilderness, but from the name of their employer I guessed they were transferring furs from one area of America to another.
Captain Henry is the leader of this group of men and they cover a large amount of ground every day, even hunting for their own food and cooking it on a camp fire - before the days of microwaves!
One day, however, Hugh Glass, a member of the group, comes face to face with a bear. The bear mauls him and he somehow survives, killing the bear. He is heavily injured when his colleagues find him and they assume he will die in a few hours or days. This being said, Captain Henry still sews up his wounds on his neck and back with some thread. After a while, it is decided that the group of men need to continue their quest, which puts them at a dilemma because Glass is much too heavy to carry around with them; he'll slow them down considerably.
With the group agreeing that Glass deserves to die in peace and have a decent burial, Captain Henry proposes that the group continue their journey, with two people left behind to bury Glass's body and then catch up with them later. There is a lot of risk associated with this and so the Captain offers 70 dollars/pounds of money for this task, which by the response seems to be a large sum of money.
Fitzgerald and Bridger decide to stay behind. Fitzgerald appears to be a cocky and somewhat immoral man, whereas Bridger appears to be a sweet and thoughtful 19 year old boy. They agree to look after Glass, until one day they notice a Native American tribe near them. Some of these tribes are known to be cannibals, and the two men realise they won't be able to defend themselves very well, they abandon Glass to flee away from the tribe and steal Glass's valuable gun and knife, leaving him stranded in the wilderness without any protection.
The novel is all about how - and whether or not - Glass gets his revenge on Fitzgerald and Bridger for leaving him to die, stealing his prized gun and leaving him without anything to help him survive. But one cannot help but wonder... how is Glass going to catch up to them when he can barely walk? What will he eat? In circumstances that would leave anyone anxious for their lives, this story makes for a great read.
I could easily devour this book tens of pages at a time, because there is a somewhat urgency to the talk and an aspect of the thriller genre in here. Throughout a lot of the book, you crave to see whether or not Glass makes it to Fitzgerald and Bridger, and you begin to wonder how he's going to punish them. What goes around comes around, after all. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves an underdog, so generally, if you're British like I am, you might just love it too!
I have yet to watch the film yet, but will do as soon as I can and may make a post about it on here.
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the book!
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