Dances With Wolves

Description for DANCES WITH WOLVES by Michael Blake:

This epic novel that inspired the extraordinary film Dances With Wolves, starring, directed and co-produced by Kevin Costner, is the story of Lieutenant John J Dunbar's adventure on the Western frontier in 1863 as he discovers a new way of life at the edge of civilization.

Dunbar, a Union soldier, is rewarded for heroism on a Civil War battlefield with his choice of a transfer to any post and he decides t follow a lifelong dream to see the Western frontier. Through a fateful turn of events, he winds up at the remote, completely deserted Fort Sedgewick with his horse, and a curious wolf as his only companions---until the neighboring Comanches discover him.

Soldier and Comanches slowly overcome their mutual distrust, and as Dunbar proves both his courage and his humanity, he is accepted into the band. Eventually, Dunbar is reborn as Dances With Wolves, a name given hi the the Comanche medicine man Kicking Bird. A romance blossoms between Dances With Wolves and Stands With A Fist, a white woman who had been adopted by the Comanches as a child after the death of her parents. Soon the battles of the Comanches become his own as he learns to fight in a way he never did before---for basic survival, for food, and for the protection of other band members. Most importantly, Dances With Wolves finds a new place for himself in the world. But his past looms close behind and inevitably he is confronted with the hardest choice of his life.

Written with sympathy and great respect for his subject, Michael Blake's gripping novel of one man's process of self-discovery awakens us to the tragedy of prejudice as well as the uplifting possibilities for shard understanding between people.