The Shining Mountains

by Alix Christie

The year is 1838. A young Scotsman forced from his homeland arrives at Hudson's Bay. Angus McDonald is contracted to British masters to trade for fur. But the world he discovers is beyond even a Highlander's wildest imaginings: raging rivers, buffalo hunts, and the powerful daughter of an ancient and magnificent people. In Catherine Baptiste, kin to Nez Perce chiefs, Angus recognizes a kindred spirit. The Rocky Mountain West in which they meet will soon be torn apart by competing claims: between British fur traders, American settlers, and the Native peoples who have lived for millennia in the valleys and plateaus of the Shining Mountains' western slopes.

In this epic family saga, the real history of the American West is revealed in all its terror, beauty, and complexity. The Shining Mountains brilliantly limns a world now long forgotten: of blended cultures seeking allies, trading furs for guns and steel, and a way of life in collision with westward colonial expansion.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Scotland, Canada

344 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2023

About the author

I'm an American-Canadian author and journalist. Born in California and raised Montana and British Columbia, I started writing at the age of 10 with a family newspaper and a (very bad) novel about horses. I studied philosophy at Vassar College, journalism at UC Berkeley and got my masters in fine arts from St Mary's College of California. In my first career as a journalist I reported for newspapers in California and from Europe as a foreign correspondent, including the Washington Post, The Guardian, The San Francisco Chronicle and Salon.com. I currently write about culture for The Economist.

I published my debut novel, "Gutenberg's Apprentice" in 2014 and have since written and published award-winning short stories. My new novel, "The Shining Mountains" is the story of my distant great-uncle and his Native American wife and family in the 19th century Rocky Mountain West. Learning about and sharing this important history has been incredibly enriching. Learn more about it at www.alixchristie.com.

Reviews

[Kaitlin McCulloch · Rating 1 out of 5]

First DNF of book club 🫣 I wanted to like this book sooo bad but I just couldn’t get into it.

[Chelsea Kleinmeyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story. An important historical perspective. It just didn’t keep my attention.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written historical fiction.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up
beautiful and heartbreaking this historical fiction holds so much truth to it and how the west was expanded to. How the destruction of many Native American tribes happened all while giving you the family lineage of a family from the Hudson Bay Company. A Scottish man, Angus McDonald who was a trader with the Natives trading guns for pelts, with a Nez Perce-French-Iroquois wife, Catherine Baptiste. It shows the battles they had to face as a married couple and throughout the adventure they embark on facing competing claims of British fur traders, the Native Americans, settlers and gold rushers. Showing the internal battle of the expansion of the white man and the desire to keep the culture of the Native Americans alive. Catherine being Native felt the expansion at it's core while her European husband felt toll it took on his wife. As the story progresses we also follow their son Duncan a mixed race man attempting to find his way in the European life. Absolutely beautifully written. You can see the work and dedication that the author, Alix Christie, put into this one.

[Miriam Murcutt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel, but one that relies on the true history of the destruction of the native Indian tribes that took place during the opening up of the American West to white men. First came trappers, then traders, then explorers like Lewis and Clark, then miners, then settlers in their wagon trains and then US army and its enforcers.

This is a lyrically-written book that captures the spirit of the Indian tribes of the West and their ties to the land they worshipped, used and respected until they were herded from it by American government forces.

Alix Christie tells this multi-generational story through the life of a Scottish immigrant – Angus McDonald, his Nez Perce wife and their family. It’s crowded with characters, so you have to pay attention (and/or refer to Christie’s ‘Cast of Characters’ given at the start of the book) in order to keep everyone and their relationships straight. But it is an informative and well-written book full of human interest as well as historical fact. Definitely worth reading.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Jackiekrantzbooks + Alix Christie for the gifted copy

I enjoy historical fiction very much, but this is different from what I am used to reading. I like that this covers the History of the West Coast. When I read stories like this, it's very fascinating, and it really pulls me in. It almost reminds me of Killers of The Flower Moon. You can tell that the writer did their research when they wrote this book. It also speaks about how their son, a man of mixed race, had challenges fitting into society at the time. Honestly, people still have the same challenges today in some areas. This book was beautifully written, and I believe books like this should be the newest editions that children are to read at schools today. So much history was lost through translation and time. Even though this is fiction, there is still a part of the history written in this book that tells a huge part of these people's story that shouldn't be forgotten.

[Catherine Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating account of the life of Angus MacDonald and his Nez Perce wife Catherine, in the 1800s.Angus was working for the Hudson Bay Company ,trading with Native tribes, guns for beaver pelts with Native tribes.The author has lyrical descriptions of the Northwest landscapes, and shows how they crossed their cultural differences in their long marriage.We learn how the Native tribes were so impacted by European settlers moving west and taking their land, through the eyes of Catherine and her relatives, and the difficult position Angus was in.Their son Duncan , as a mixed race man, had challenges to integrate into the European culture, and was an intelligent and successful person.A great read for anyone curious about early American history, and in the current interest in indigenous ways collaborating with European culture.

[G.P. Gottlieb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Angus McDonald had to escape from Scotland or risk arrest. In 1838, he contracted with the Hudson Bay Company to trade in the Pacific Northwest. There he discovers majestic mountains, raging rivers, and buffalo. He meets and marries Catherine, who is related to Nez Perce royalty, and together they face competing claims of British fur traders and gold seekers, settlers and Native Americans who’ve lives for thousands of years in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. The Shining Mountains is a brilliant, fictional exploration of a family’s clash between colonial expansion and native culture, based on the author’s blended Scottish and Nez Pierce ancestors.

This is a beautiful novel and I loved being immersed in Christie's poetic descriptions of the land and the people. I was honored to interview her for a new books podcast: https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-shini...

[Alison Ehara-Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books I have read in years. The process of incredible research and investigation that Alix Christie did into her ancestors as well as the deeply collaborative process of consultation that she did with the Pacific northwest tribes elders councils and individuals have creates an incredible novel that you will have trouble putting down once you start reading it. This book will teach you so much about the history of the West Coast and this country. I highly recommend this book to everybody. It should be required reading for everyone who lives on these lands we call the United States of America.

[Victor Carson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Virtual Destruction of the Indian Tribes of the North West

I chose this novel because I loved the author's well known story of Gutenberg's Apprentice. This novel, set in the Northwestern United States, traces the American Indians from the time of the British establishment of a fur trade to the rapid, overwhelming surge of gold miners, other settlers, and federal soldiers that sought to sweep the Indian Tribes from the face of the earth. Very well written but very honest in its chronicle of our greed and crimes.

[Susan Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written, well researched tale based on a family of the Hudson Fur trade days in the Great Northwest. Written with compassion for the original inhabitants, it is a tale of the land as much as the people that live there. I liked how deeply the women were examined and the observations made about many of the historical events that transpire during the four generations of the book. Would love to see a prequel or a sequel- a movie even!

[Veronique · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It's a multi-generation epic family saga and love story set in the Rocky Mountain West at a time when British fur traders, American settlers and native people were all fighting for the land - a place and time I knew very little of. Alix Christie’s vivid prose captures so well the vast landscapes and the cultural clashes between these very different people. Totally engrossing!

[Elizabeth Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not enough is written about métis families. I enjoyed following this one, although I found myself longing for an Author's Note to parse what is known and what was invented. Perhaps the print version has one? (I listened to the audio and was happy to find it.) Heartbreaking history, well told.

[Jeff Macey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book that tells the truth about the early west!! This is the kind of book that should be taught in American schools but of course America is all about white washing history. The brutality is astounding and explains why we have ultra racist trump trash today.

[Ron Frampton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A family saga of the american west.

[Karen Curran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating history. The destruction of the lives of native Americans is heart-breaking.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up to 4

[Tonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m being generous with the stars but this is an interesting (true) historical about the intersection between the Hudson Bay Co traders and the native Americans and the US government and the masses of American settlers in the Pacific Northwest. Heartbreaking at times but overall threaded with love and hope.