“But One Life” – audiobook now available

But One Life: The Story of Nathan Hale by Samantha Wilcoxson

Fun fact: I was actually named after this very Nathan!

Even though I had grown up in Massachusetts, I knew very little of Nathan’s brief story. It was also a nice challenge to use a Mid-Atlantic accent for this character—something resembling a British accent, but not that pure.

Listen to a sample:

“If I had ten thousand lives, I would lay them all down.”

In the early 1770’s, Nathan Hale is a young philosophy student at Yale. There, he, his brother, and their friend, Ben Tallmadge, are busying themselves with intellectual debate and occasional mischief.

Only too soon, their patriotic ideals of revolution and liberty would be put to the test. Forced to choose between love and duty, young Nathan has to face the harsh personal cost of deeply held beliefs as he leaves to become Washington’s spy.

In this powerful novel of friendship and sacrifice, Samantha Wilcoxson paints a vivid portrait of a young man’s principled passion and dedication to his ideals, turning the legend into flesh and blood.

This is the touching and thought-provoking story of how an ordinary boy grew into an extraordinary man – an American hero.