Book Synopsis
“Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon” (French: La Jangada - Huit Cents lieues sur l'Amazone) published in 1881, has also been published as “The Giant Raft.” This adventure novel concerns how Joam Garral, a ranch owner who lives near the Peruvian-Brazilian border on the Amazon River, is forced to travel downstream when his past catches up with him. Most of the novel is situated on a large jangada (a Brazilian timber raft) used by Garral and his family to float to Belém at the river's mouth. A scoundrel named Torres offers Joam absolute proof of his innocence, but the price that Torres wants for this information is to marry Joam's daughter, which is inconceivable to Joam. The proof lies in an encrypted letter that will exonerate Garral. When Torres is killed, the Garral family must race to decode the letter before Joam is executed.