Marching to Valhalla: A Novel of Custer's Last Days »

"A TERRIFIC YARN . . . Marching to Valhalla is written as though it were a long-lost diary of Custer's, leading up to his fatal battle. It is a very personal view."
—Denver Post

In his New York Times bestselling novel Dances with Wolves, Michael Blake created an unforgettable saga of white and Native American cultures. Now in Marching to Valhalla, Blake unfolds the story of the final months of General George Armstrong Custer, a story that illuminates the epic sweep of his entire life—his career, his passions, his legacy to the American west.

Here is Custer as we've never seen him before—reckless soldier, bold lover of women, ardent husband, devoted commander, expert Indian killer. A stirring tribute to an American hero and an intimate portrait of a brilliant, flawed man, Michael Blake's Marching to Valhalla is an absolutely stunning novel.

"A startling novel about the year's most popular literary subject."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Publishers Weekly

The author of Dances with Wolves returns to the Old West for a startling novel about this year's most popular literary subject, the inimitable George Armstrong Custer, focus to date of at least four novels and three nonfiction books. Every author has his own Custer, and Blake's is wholly unexpected: not a glory-hungry martinet but a rational man and passionate romantic. Blake's approach is refreshing. He presents Custer by imagining the general's journals, written during the last seven weeks of his life, from May 18, 1876 to the morning of June 25, 1876, date of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. As he pursues the Sioux, Custer reveals his private thoughts about the military, his Indian opponents, his plans for the upcoming battle and his destiny. He also ventures at length into his past, making it clear that, although "I have always aspired to greatness," it was his remarkable battlefield achievements in the Civil War, as well as his ardent love for his wife, Libbie, that proved key to his later military successes and his popularity with the public. He also coolly explains his court martial conviction and his sordid affair with a young Indian woman. Though revisionist in its sympathy for Custer, the narrative seems rigorously authentic in its period detail, down to the flowery nature of Custer's prose. Blake's fascinating tale may not convince readers that its hero was a paragon of humanity, but it likely will persuade many that, for all his faults, Custer was a warrior who died with his boots on. 100,000 first printing; major ad/promo; film rights sold to New Line Cinema with Brad Pitt scheduled to play Custer; simultaneous Random House audio; author tour; foreign rights sold in Japan, Germany and England. (Oct.)