All the Creatures that Breathe: A Novel Based on Real Events

All the Creatures that Breathe

About the time my last book, "When You Find My Body: The Disappearance of Geraldine Largay on the Appalachian Trail" came out, I was invited (likely by accident) to a dinner for writers in Maine's capital.
In the middle of the evening, a writer suggested I get started writing a story that I told him had been sticking with me for 35 years. So, I left the party early and went to work that night. Sixteen months and 150,000 words later, "All the Creatures that Breathe" was born and I'd finally gotten it off my chest.

In the early years of the adventure travel industry, I worked as a guide schlepping people into the mountains of South America and the far north. When my friends and I weren't on contracted trips with clients, we were wannabe explorers dreaming up our own adventures, often at the South American Explorer's Club, or in Mira Flores bars drinking too many Crystal beers or pisco sours. The more difficult and dangerous the adventure, the better.

Sometimes we actually acted on our dreams and got into all manner of trouble. Those were the heady days of our youth. Not all of us lived through it.

In "All the Creatures that Breathe," I changed the names of the players, but the places are real, and the events were real.

The pandemic has curtailed travel for the time being, so strap yourselves into a comfortable chair and let this novel take you on an adventure and experience an expedition and all that goes with it--the good and the bad.

I must warn you all; a couple of terrible things happen in the book, to animals and to people--including women. But fear not, there is also beauty, and love, and art.

I hope you like the ride.

Dee

All the creatures that breathe

From Harvard Yard to the Andes, a story of discovery, love, and loss."
In 1985, three Harvard archaeology graduate students travel to Peru for a backpacking trip to seek adventure, culture, and historic sites. While exploring undiscovered Incan ruins on the remote, eastern frontier of the old empire, the friends witness an unspeakable crime. Their enchanting trip becomes a primal fight for survival.
The three friends must come to terms with their experiences, and each student's recovery and healing process becomes intensely personal and continues for decades.
This is a story of exploration, endurance, and the cruelty of lost love.

In his new novel, Dee Dauphinee, author of When You Find My Body: The Disappearance of Geraldine Largay on the Appalachian Trail and Highlanders Without Kilts, takes readers on a true adventure, immersing them in a backpacking expedition into remote parts of the Andes. Dauphinee guides the readers from the preparation and logistics of the excursion through its long, dirty, sweaty, reality — warts and all.