From Paris to New York by Land

In 1903, when much of the globe remained unmapped and Siberia was synonymous with exile, Harry De Windt conceived a journey so audacious it borders on madness: determining whether a railway could link Paris to New York by land, threading through the Russian Empire and across the Bering Strait to Alaska. What unfolds is a harrowing expedition across frozen wastes, through lawless frontier towns, and alongside prisoner transport columns bound for penal colonies. The narrative crackles with the electricity of genuine discovery, when an explorer could still stumble upon blank spaces on the map and when a single expedition could reshape imperial ambitions. De Windt's previous attempt had ended in failure, lending weight to every decision made this time. The object was stupendous, the risks enormous, the reward merely the answer to one monumental question: could it be done? For readers hungry for the lost romance of exploration, when death was a constant companion and the unknown still had the power to astonish, this remains an irresistible time capsule of audacity.