Brooks, Geraldine "Caleb's Crossing" - 2011In our local book club, we always bring a book we just read and loved and then decide which one the group will read. This time, I had brought "
People of the Book" because it is my favourite book of the year. But someone else had brought this one and we thought it funny that we both had chosen the same author.
So, we decided to read "
Caleb's Crossing". The story takes place at Martha's Vinyard and Harvard College. It tells about the life of the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk was born around 1646 and he learned English and Latin and all the other subject he needed to graduate.
The author explains that her book is based on the life of Caleb and that the stories about the Wampanoag and the island are true but that the rest is fiction. Still, we can very well believe how life must have been for a young English girl at the time. And there is also a lot of documentation about the life of the Native Americans to make the story plausible.
I love historical fiction and this is a wonderful example of how you can describe life in a past century through both real and fictional characters. This was only my fourth book by Geraldine Brooks, I need to read more.
The other readers also really liked the book and the author. We would like to read "Year of Wonders", her first book.
From the back cover:
"
Bethia Mayfield is a restless and curious young woman growing up in Martha's vineyard in the 1660s amid a small band of pioneering English Puritans. At age twelve, she meets Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a secret bond that draws each into the alien world of the other. Bethia's father is a Calvinist minister who seeks to convert the native Wampanoag, and Caleb becomes a prize in the contest between old ways and new, eventually becoming the first Native American graduate of Harvard College. Inspired by a true story and narrated by the irresistible Bethia, Caleb’s Crossing
brilliantly captures the triumphs and turmoil of two brave, openhearted spirits who risk everything in a search for knowledge at a time of superstition and ignorance."
