The new novel from Pulitzer Prize-winner Geraldine Brooks author of the Richard & Judy bestseller March Sunday Times bestseller Year of Wonders & People of the Book. Martha s Vineyard 1650s: Bethia Mayfield is a young girl growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers & Puritans. Restless bright & curious but denied the education that her brothers receive she slips away as often as she can to explore the island s wild landscapes & observe its native Wampanoag inhabitants. At the age of twelve she encounters Caleb the young son of a chieftain & the children form a secret friendship that gradually draws each into the alien world of the other. Meanwhile Bethia s minister father is trying to convert the Wampanoag awakening the wrath of the tribe s shaman against whose magic he must test his own beliefs. & when he takes it upon himself to educate Caleb it will further divide the communities
- within a year the boy is learning Latin & Greek & leaves the island to study at Harvard. As Caleb makes the crossing into white culture Bethia finds herself pulled in the opposite direction. Trapped by the narrow strictures of her faith & her gender she seeks connections with Caleb s world that will challenge her beliefs & set her at odds with her community...