THE CRUELEST MILES The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic

An epic 1925 journey of men, dogs, and sleds delivered serum to Nome, Alaska, to stave off a diphtheria epidemic that was killing the population. It was the dead of winter, Norton Sound was frozen solid, temperatures plunged to minus 60 degrees, and the railhead, where the serum would arrive, was 700 miles from Nome. To complicate an impossible situation, a gale-force blizzard was developing along the trail that the dogs and mushers would use. Margot Dionne delivers this mind-numbing experience in a calm voice, allowing the words to convey the terror and agony that characterized the journey. This is entirely right, as the real heroes of the tale are the dogs--and the dogs don't speak. The men, who were also heroic, weren't a loquacious lot either. One of them summarized his journey by saying, "It was real cold." R.E.K. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 03]