The Wild Girl: The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932 (The Last Apache Girl)

From the award-winning author of One Thousand White Women, a novel in the tradition of Little Big Man, tracing one man's search for adventure and the wild Apache girl who invites him into her world hen Ned Giles is orphaned as a teenager, he heads West hoping to leave his troubles behind. He joins the 1932 Great Apache Expedition on their search for a young boy, the son of a wealthy Mexican landowner, who was kidnapped by wild Apaches. But the expedition's goal is complicated when they encounter a wild Apache girl in a Mexican jail cell, victim of a Mexican massacre of her tribe that has left her orphaned and unwilling to eat or speak. As he and the expedition make their way through the rugged Sierra Madre mountains, Ned's growing feelings for the troubled girl soon force him to choose allegiances and make a decision that will haunt him forever.

From the award-winning author of One Thousand White Women, a novel in the tradition of Little Big Man, tracing one man's search for adventure and the wild Apache girl who invites him into her world.

When Ned Giles is orphaned as a teenager, he heads West hoping to leave his troubles behind. He joins the 1932 Great Apache Expedition on their search for a young boy, the son of a wealthy Mexican landowner, who was kidnapped by wild Apaches. But the expedition's goal is complicated when they encounter a wild Apache girl in a Mexican jail cell, victim of a Mexican massacre of her tribe that has left her orphaned and unwilling to eat or speak. As he and the expedition make their way through the rugged Sierra Madre mountains, Ned's growing feelings for the troubled girl soon force him to choose allegiances and make a decision that will haunt him forever.

In this novel based on historical fact, Jim Fergus takes readers on a journey of magnificent sweep and heartbreaking consequence peopled with unforgettable characters. With prose so vivid that the road dust practically rises off the page, The Wild Girl is an epic novel filled with drama, peril, and romance, told by a master.

Jim Fergus is a freelance journalist whose writing appears in numerous publications. The author of two non-fiction books, his first novel, One Thousand White Women, remains a bestselling epic of the American West. He lives in southern Arizona.

Booklist

A riveting epic shot...a deftly rendered tale of survival, self-discovery, and the precarious boundaries between man and beast.

In an astoundingly well-imagined novel about a moment in American history when the modern and the ancient were at war, Jim Fergus takes readers on a journey of magnificent sweep and heartbreaking consequence. With prose so vivid that the road dust practically rises off the page, THE WILD GIRL is an epic novel told by a master of the form.When Ned Giles is orphaned as a teenager, he packs his bags into his parents’ car—his only inheritance from their indebted estate—and heads West. His goal is to join the Great Apache Expedition, a band of paying gentlemen and their servants who are enlisted in the search for the 7-year-old son of a wealthy Mexican landowner, who was kidnapped by Wild Apaches. Once at his destination, Giles is befriended by the drunken head photographer for the daily newspaper, who shows him the ropes of being a news photographer, and Ned joins up with an eccentric band of dilettantes, lawmen, and one female anthropologist, who will head off to Mexico in search of the boy. First, however, they discover a wild Apache girl separated from her mother during a Mexican massacre of her tribe, now languishing in a Mexican jail cell, speechless and unwilling to eat or drink. Ned hatches a plan to return her to her people in exchange for the boy. As Ned and his friends close in on their goal of exchanging boy and girl, they walk directly into the hands of the Wild Apaches, who capture them. Torn by loyalties to a wild girl he’s come to love, and to his friends, Ned makes choices that will haunt him for the rest of his days. From the award-winning author of One Thousand White Women, a novel in the tradition of Little Big Man, tracing one man's search for adventure and the wild Apache girl who invites him into her worldWhen Ned Giles is orphaned as a teenager, he heads West, hoping to leave his troubles behind. He joins the 1932 Great Apache Expedition on their search for a young boy, the son of a wealthy Mexican landowner, who was kidnapped by wild Apaches. But the expedition's goal is complicated when they encounter a wild Apache girl in a Mexican jail cell, victim of a Mexican massacre of her tribe that has left her orphaned and unwilling to eat or speak. As he and the expedition make their way through the rugged Sierra Madre mountains, Ned's growing feelings for the troubled girl soon force him to choose allegiances and make a decision that will haunt him forever.In this novel based on historical fact, Jim Fergus takes readers on a journey of magnificent sweep and heartbreaking consequence peopled with unforgettable characters. With prose so vivid that the road dust practically rises off the page, The Wild Girl is an epic novel filled with drama, peril, and romance, told by a master. This is the novel your reading group will be talking about long past your discussion! Orphaned as a teenager, Ned Giles heads west seeking a new life, joining the 1932 Great Apache Expedition to search for a young boy, the son of a wealthy Mexican landowner, kidnapped by wild Apaches, only to meet a troubled young Apache girl, imprisoned in a Mexican jail, whose fate force him to make a choice that will change his life forever When Ned Giles is orphaned as a teenager, he heads West by joining the 1932 Great Apache Expedition on their search for the kidnapped son of a wealthy Mexican landowner, but Ned's growing feelings for an Apache girl soon force him to choose allegiances and make a fateful decision that will haunt him forever