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    The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge
    The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge
    The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge

    Written by Michael Punke

    Narrated by Holter Graham

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
    #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

    A thrilling tale of betrayal and revenge set against the nineteenth-century American frontier, Michael Punke's The Revenant is the astonishing story of real-life trapper and frontiersman Hugh Glass

    The year is 1823, and the trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company live a brutal frontier life. Hugh Glass is among the company’s finest men, an experienced frontiersman and an expert tracker. But when a scouting mission puts him face-to-face with a grizzly bear, he is viciously mauled and not expected to survive. Two company men are dispatched to stay behind and tend to Glass before he dies. When the men abandon him instead, Glass is driven to survive by one desire: revenge. With shocking grit and determination, Glass sets out, crawling at first, across hundreds of miles of uncharted American frontier.

    Based on a true story, The Revenant is a remarkable tale of obsession, the human will stretched to its limits, and the lengths that one man will go to for retribution.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateJan 6, 2015
    ISBN9781427262134
    The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge
    Author

    Michael Punke

    Michael Punke is the author of The Revenant which was made into an Oscar winning movie directed by Alejandro Gonzalez starring Leonardo DiCaprio. He lives with his family in Montana. Punke is the history correspondent for Montana Quarterly magazine. Punke is also the author of a work of nonfiction, Fire and Brimstone: The North Butte Mining Disaster of 1917, a finalist for the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award.

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    Reviews for The Revenant

    4/5

    68 ratings32 reviews

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    • 4/5
      great book.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      In 1823 trapper Hugh Glass signs on with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. A seasoned trapper, Hugh is well respected by the other men. As the Company travels through what will one day be known as the Wyoming Territory, Glass is savagely attacked and nearly killed by a bear. Left in the care of two of his companions, Glass is instead abandoned, the men stealing is precious rifle and kit. The only means Glass would have of survival. Instead of dying Glass does survive. And at first agonizingly crawls and then finally walks in an epic quest to catch back up with the Company and the two men who betrayed him. Glass travels through a barely charted wilderness, hostile tribes and a brutal winter in an unforgettable quest for vengeance.
    • 4/5
      A good retelling of Hugh Glass and his horrific survival tale. The revenge that kept him alive never came to be and that makes you wonder in the end. Would I ever stop chasing those who did me wrong or could I move on and not look back? Other books have given more details as to Hugh's condition but this is still a great telling of his story. Can't waif tor the movie to come out Christmas Day.
    • 4/5
      I read this because I'm wanting to watch the movie, and I always like to read the book first. It has a lot of historical information and facts. People really into that time period will probably love that. The action and survival were the parts that grabbed me. It was absolutely amazing how much he survived. He was attacked by a bear and left for dead by his group. The men who were suppose to stay with him until he died actually took all of his supplies. He survives the winter in the wilderness with no tools, weapons, materials or food except what he can find while suffering life-threatening injuries. Then he travels for hundreds of miles through unsafe territories surviving all kinds of hazards including people trying to kill him while still injured (enough to not leave bed for most of us). According to the author, most of the story is true. I can't wait to see the film.
    • 3/5
      The movie was better. Usually the book is better than the movie...not this time. The ending was especially anti-climatic.
    • 3/5
      Enjoyable historical fiction work. Compelling story and good writing. As much as I wanted to rank this book higher, I simply couldn't because of the big let down in the end. The denouement is decidedly disappointing. It's as though the author simply got tired of writing, decided to stop and chose what he thought to be the quickest resolution to a complex situation. Hugh Glass' actions in the end just do not comport with his vengeful quest throughout the entire book. All that Glass went through and then suddenly, in the midst of pursuit, he's almost there and then...ah, nevermind. Just doesn't make sense. A disappointing conclusion to an otherwise riveting book.Holter Graham is absolutely magnificent. His accents, foreign languages, inflections and character building are spot on. It was worth the time on this book just to listen to Holter. He saved this book from an otherwise dismal review.
    • 3/5
      I had planned NOT to read this novel, but I volunteered to lead a discussion for book club, which meant I had to read it. I was quite surprised to find that I enjoyed reading it. I didn't mind picking it up, and I could read for lengths at a time without wanting to stop. I skimmed over the eating of raw animals because I gag just thinking of eating in this manner. I was disturbed by how lucky Hugh Glass was and often wondered at the validity of the events. I felt better after reading the note at the end that much has become legend. I could more easily accept the myriad events that happened to him knowing that it's more legend than fact. It's not a long book, so I'm curious how the movie can be so long. My favorite character was Bridger because he changes and matures to become an important man in the west. I surprisingly enjoyed the novel.
    • 4/5
      There's something to be said about reading a good wilderness survival book. That something is I wouldn't last two minutes. However, just because I wouldn't survive, doesn't mean I don't thoroughly enjoy reading all about someone else who would. Even from an early age reading Gary Paulsen, I was always captivated by those much stronger than me. To survive in the wilderness you need to be not only physically strong, but mentally strong, something that the main character in The Revenant certainly is. Loosely based off of historical events; Hugh Glass, a fur trapper travelling up the Missouri river in 1823, finds himself in a perilous situation. Having been brutally mauled by a bear, the captain of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company leaves two fur trappers behind to look over Hugh while he slowly dies and then give him a proper burial. Unwilling to wait for Hugh to succumb to death, the two trappers not only leave him on his own, but take his weapon and tools, ensuring that he will never survive. The betrayal spurs Hugh Glass into action, slowly he heals with only one thought on his mind, revenge. He will hunt down those who abandoned him and deal out his brand of wilderness revenge. Dodging wild animals, Native Americans, and the perilous winter, revenge is what he heals Hugh and keeps him going. An astoundingly fast paced read. Filled with death, despair, and survival, this will make you glad to live in modern times.
    • 4/5
      Based on a true story! Bear mauling of a beaver trapper, left for dead and raided of his gun and anything else that would have made his life possible, survives, and eventually finds his raiders. Unbelievable! Author fleshes out the known facts to put you in the saddle. Want to see the movie!
    • 4/5
      Set in the Rockies of the 1820s. Hugh Glass was mauled badly by a grizzly and left for dead by his companions, fellow fur trappers. The novel details his survival. run-ins with Indians, travelling with voyageurs partway and the whole of his journey to seek revenge.
    • 4/5
      Got this because I always prefore to read the book before I see the movie adaptation (even potentially). This was written in 2002 by Michael unke. He is now the US Amabassador to the World Trade Organization. During the run up to the film version of the book, the US State Department forbid him from doing any promotion whatsoever.The book tells the story of real life frontiersman; Hugh Glass. Glass was a part of a fur trapping expedition and very early on in the book, he is attached and brutally mauled by a bear. Glass is left for dead. He somehow, however, survives and begins a long journey that he starts out crawling on his belly to try to catch up to the men who betrayed him. It starts out as a story of revenge, but ultimately becomes one of redemption. Certainly not a feel good read, but a worth while one. Excellent historical fiction, that skirts on the edge of narrative non-fiction.I've said it before, but I wouldn't last 5 minutes living in the uncharted west of the 1820's.8/10S: 12/21/15 - F: 1/14/16 (16 Days)
    • 3/5
      It is the 1820s. Hugh Glass is part of a group of men who set out to start up a new fort for trading. Unfortunately, on the way there, Glass is attacked by a grizzly bear. The group leaves two men behind who are supposed to care for him until he dies, then give him a proper burial. Instead, after only a few days, they rob him and leave. When Glass realizes what happened, he is intent on going after the two who robbed and abandoned him to enact his revenge. It took a few chapters for me to get interested, but as soon as the attack happened, that caught my attention. I wasn't as interested in the info about how the men all got to be where they were. I found the parts that focused on Glass and his survival while he was on his own to be the most interesting to me. Although I mostly enjoy historical fiction, I find western-type historical fiction isn't always my “thing”, so I suspect that's (at least in part) why I didn't enjoy this more. There was a historical note, as Glass was a real person and the premise of the story really did happen; of course, the details the author filled in for the story are fictional.
    • 3/5
      This book is well researched and a good read. The Movie version is a politically correct version of the American mountain men and entrepeneurs as the usual nazi invaders.
    • 2/5
      I have never said this before in my life, but go see the movie and skip this book.Michael Punke is a self-identified history nerd who wanted to turn one of the incredible stories he'd stumbled upon in his hobby into a gripping historical novel, but would seem to have bitten off more than he was prepared to handle. This novel lacks any sort of character development, and many of the characters never become more than flat shapes with uncompelling dialogue. Punke never really explores the mindset of his hero - a man abandoned to die, surviving against all odds, and finding himself risking his own death just for revenge. The man who abandoned him is given even less development, the description of his rocky past exploits standing in for any justification or explanation of his actions or choices. Action falls flat as well, failing to make the reader feel any of the stakes involved through all of the danger the characters experience.Punke embellishes a bare bones history with his own inventions, but it is difficult not to compare them to the same embellishments made by the film based on this novel. Where Punke invents white male traders as fodder for the arrows of natives, Alejandor Inarritu includes a wide variety of characters, including trappers, soldiers, and natives from various tribes and of varying dispositions towards the main cast of characters. Mostly this novel is left me wondering "What could have been?", a question for which the Oscar-winning film unfortunately had a better answer for.
    • 3/5
      Pretty good historical novel about Hugh Glass who was mauled by a grizzly and left for dead. He crawled many miles to survive and get revenge.
    • 2/5
      ABANDONED The Revenant : A Novel of Revenge (Audio) by Michael Punkereader: Holter Grahampublished: 2002format: 9:12 digital audio acquired: library read: Oct 24 - Nov 1 - quit at 80%rating: 1½For some reason I kind of assumed, based on the well-regarded movie that I haven't seen, that this book was at least pretty decent. It has a wonderful setting and underlying mythology. But the writing - it's so simple and straight-forward and uncomplicated to the point of, well, deadness. For all it's cleanness and TLC (Punke put about 4 years into this), it falls flat on reading. It's not just me and it wasn't just the reader, who was capable but made some odd choices. See Brian Ted Jones's review here. But, I do have the lowest rating of the book on LT.The fiction is based on the true mythology around mountain man Hugh Glass. Beyond the fringe of western civilization, and during the height of the Arikara War in 1823, Glass ventured into barely know world of the upper Missouri River with a group of mountain trappers. He was apparently mauled by a grizzly bear, left for dead, but somehow managed to survive and find fort Kiowa. It's a testament of sorts to his character that he then set back out west again looking, apparently, for some kind of revenge. But Glass never wrote anything and never told anyone much about his story. So, in the factual world this is all mythology.I had a period when I was absolutely fascinated by these men, horrified by their cruelty, yet intensely jealous of the unspoiled natural and human world they wandered into so destructively. I counted Jedidiah Smith, another grizzly bear attack survivor, as something of a hero. I still have some fondness and imagination left for this era. This could be rich fictional stuff.Punke, apparently, is a political writer and writes a lot of non-fiction. His vocab is sharp and his prose is clean. He has a romantic attachment to the landscape and outdoor activities, and that is what he really tried hard to capture here. Wikipedia says "He started archival research and writing in 1997, and it took four years for him to complete the novel, with the long hours taking a toll on his health." That is to say his soul was apparently all-in. Unfortunately, he's not a novelist. The landscape doesn't come to life. I found his characters embarrassingly unrealistic, and certainly they are uncomplicated. The philosophy is simplistic at best. And, he carried it out too long. When Glass makes Ft. Kiowa, the book has done everything it could. I think maybe, if he had stopped their, I would have had more appreciation. But, it keeps going, padding out it's limited scope, and in the process it unveils its flaws so fully, I finally found I just didn't want to listen anymore.Without the movie and praise this book gets maybe 2.5 or 3 stars. But, in light of my disappointment, 1.5.
    • 3/5
      Great story, terrible writing. A lot of action is glossed over, irrelevant scenes are inexplicably given prominence (like the blowing up of the canon). What is almost unbelievable for a novel this short is how repetitive it becomes.
    • 4/5
      Excellent story that is very well told. It was compelling and hard to put down.

      Be forewarned; elements of the story are pretty raw and graphic. The author does not filter or sugarcoat the realities of survival in this era.
    • 5/5
      Wow. What a great read!
    • 4/5
      Had this story not been based on a true story it would have been a bit hard to believe. That a man could go through this much and still survive is dumbfounding. I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. Again I was reading it before seeing the movie. I would recommend it and can't wait to see the movie.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. I appreciated that Author's Note about the fictional portions he put in. I understand it was mostly based on actual events, and that made it an incredible story of survival. The writing was good but, not great. The story was nice and tight and didn't lag, which is why I gave it 4 stars. I would have rated it higher but, there were instances where the climax was building then the story seemed to just move on to the next scene. Overall a good book.
    • 4/5
      Decent story. I liked the survival part of it better than the revenge part, but that was what interested me in the story to begin with. I felt the end was a little bit of a let down, but after reading the historical note in the back I found that gave me the finality that I needed.
    • 4/5
      They don’t make many men like Hugh Glass anymore, probably never did. Glass, the Philadelphia-born adventurer, was a hard man to kill, a man who, time after time, miraculously managed to beat the odds that claimed lesser men all around him. Glass’s story was so intriguing, in fact, that newspapers of the day spread his fame across the country and around the world. In the end, though, Glass was best known then (and still is) as the mountain man who survived one of the most horrific grizzly bear attacks ever recorded before “returning from the dead” to track down the two men who robbed him of everything he owned before they abandoned him to what seemed to be his certain death. But as The Revenant, Michael Punke’s 2002 debut novel illustrates, Hugh Glass was just one of an estimated 3,000 “mountain men” and fur trappers who struggled so mightily to make their fortunes from the beaver population of the American West. Ironically enough, although these men were among the most independently minded ever produced in America, they were forced into a lifestyle of almost military precision for the sake of survival. The Indian tribes whose territory was plundered by the trappers reacted in different ways. Some were willing to live in peace with the invaders, others waged open warfare against them, and some joined the white men in waging war on other tribes. The problem was that the Indians were prone to changing their minds and allegiances almost from one day to the next. In an environment like this, a man needed someone to watch his back. But when Hugh Glass most needed someone to do exactly that for him as he struggled to recover from the bear mauling, the two men left behind to help him abandoned him at the first hint of danger. Bad as that was, what Glass would never forgive was how John Fitzgerald and Jim Bridger robbed him of his rifle, powder, and knife before running off to catch up with the rest of their party – dooming him to an almost certain death. A lesser man would have just given up and died, but Hugh Glass was not that kind of man. At first crawling only a few dozen yards a day, he began to track the two men he swore to himself he would kill. Eventually he managed to crawl two or three miles a day, then to walk ten miles a day, and finally he was covering twenty or thirty miles between sunrise and sunset. Glass did catch up with the two culprits, but when he did, things did not go quite the way he had expected.The Revenant is Hugh Glass’s story – and Michael Punke tells it well.
    • 5/5
      I love books of adventure, in particular those that are set in the wilderness where man has to pit hits wits against nature. An added bonus is if it is a true story or has at least a ring of truth about it. The Revenant has all of this and much of it is based on actual events, with enough fiction to bridge the gaps in the parts we never really knew about to make the story flow.We follow Hugh Glass, a trapper employed by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company to both supply food and assist them across the treacherous terrain. Unfortunately he encounters a grizzly bear which savagely mauls him. Glass manages to kill the bear but is practically dead when found by members of his party. With very little hope of survival and deep in Indian territory the captain of the group makes the decision to leave Glass. He asks for, and receives two volunteers (Fitzgerald and Bridger) to remain behind for a reward. The only stipulation being that they must give him decent burial when he eventually dies. After only staying a few days the decision is made to leave Glass to die alone and they will make their way back to the main party. Little did they know that Glass not only survives but decides to track those down that wronged him.This has to be one of the greatest books I have read. It gets the reader fully immersed in the world of the frontiersmen, the harshness of nature and how death is always only just around the corner. It is difficult to imagine these days just how far away these men were from civilisation, where even something as simple as a broken bone could spell disaster. Punke has a very easy writing style that allows the story to flow uninterrupted and the pages melt away. The action scenes burst from the page and are nicely interspersed with stunning descriptions of the environment.The revenant is a typical novel in what would once have been described as a ‘Boys own adventure’ genre, and yet to describe it as this would be doing it a major discredit. My only gripe (and it’s a small one) would be that the ending was strangely unsatisfying and felt a bit of a damp squib, but that is just down to personal taste. I guess we will never know how much of the book was true and what has been embellished, but if even a fraction of it really happened then Hugh Glass was a hell of a man. The notes at the end of the book give the history of the major characters and what became of them in the following years.The novel has been made into a multi award winning film, but as usual the book has so much more offer and in my opinion far too ‘Hollywoodified’. If you have yet to see the movie, take my advice and pick this up first. You won’t be disappointed.
    • 5/5
      A stunningly good book. Nothing flashy about it other than a well-told story. The day to day survival of Hugh Glass and the fully imagined, well-researched details, including nature, geography, weather and the relationships between the various tribes, fur traders and the army.
    • 3/5
      It's an absolutely fascinating and unforgettable story based on the real life of Hugh Glass. It's well-researched, almost to the point of it reading like non-fiction; and Punke's inelegant style deadens the prose; but it's worth the time to take and read!
    • 5/5
      A little slow to start but what a survey of an interesting man's life in a time and place that was a bit of a blank to me. Even if some was dramatic fill in was included. From Jean LaFitte to the Pawnees to the Rocky Mts. What a life.
    • 3/5
      Hugh Glass looses a fight with a grizzly but survives to hunt down the men who abandoned him. Plot is interesting, especially some of the survival techniques the author describes.
    • 4/5
      An engaging, visceral text that blends historical event, literary license, and revolting details. Seriously, the part where Hugh Glass eats a snake? Gagging.
    • 4/5
      The Revenant by Michael Punke is based on the story of Hugh Glass, who, in 1823 was travelling up the Grand River with a party of fur trappers. He was attacked and viciously mauled by a grizzly bear. Hugh is not expected to survive and the group needs to move on so two men are left to stay and care for the wounded man and bury him once he dies. Instead these two men, not only abandon him in the wilderness but take his gun and knife. Instead of dying Glass recovers and, driven by grim determination for revenge, he vows to track down the deserters and begins his long crawl to safety. The author stays very close to the facts that are known about this event and delivers a spellbinding tale of survival and revenge. This was not the first time I have read about Hugh Glass, his story is also the basis for the 1954 National Book Award recipient, Lord Grizzly by Frederick Manfred, but even on the second reading, the details of this man’s survival are incredible. While Lord Grizzly delved into the actual survival story in greater detail, this book deals more with his pledge for retribution.The Revenant is a great piece of historical fiction both entertaining and informative as well as an excellent adventure story about one man’s willpower and courage to survive against the odds.