The Red Heart: A Novel

James Alexander Thom

Aug 2010 · Sold by Ballantine Books

About this ebook

The Slocum family of Northeastern Pennsylvania are the best of the white settlers, peace-loving Quakers who believe that the Indians hold the Light of God inside. It is from this good-hearted family that Frances is abducted during the Revolutionary war.

As the child's terror subsides, she is slowly drawn into the sacred work and beliefs of her adoptive mother and of all the women of these Eastern tribes. Frances becomes Maconakwa, the Little Bear Woman of the Miami Indians. Then, long after the Indians are beaten and their last hope, Tecumseh, is killed, the Slocums hear word of their long-lost daughter and head out to Indiana to meet their beloved Frances. But for Maconakwa, it is a moment of truth, the test of whether her heart is truly a red one.

Ratings and reviews

This was my first book by Thom. Not my last! I love history and learning how people lived. You really get into the people's minds as to what they were experiencing and feeling. He does his research.

Its based on a true story. I loved it from the moment I started reading. The author has a wonderful way of enabling you to see the story vividly thru his words. I couldn't stop reading or put the book down!

This is a beautifully written story of a woman's life with her Indian people, and of the strong bonds that held them together as a people, as the white people around them drove them from place to place. It is also a story of a families heartbreak at the loss of their family member and of their lifelong search to find her. It is a story about survival and never giving up in the face of adversity. Heartrending and poignant.

About the author

James Alexander Thom lives in the Indiana hill country near Bloomington with his wife, Dark Rain of the Shawnee Nation, United Remnant Band. He has been a U.S. Marine, a newspaper and magazine editor, and a member of the faculty at the Indiana University Journalism School. Thom is the author of Follow the River, Long Knife, From Sea to Shining Sea, Panther in the Sky, for which he won the prestigious Western Writers of America Spur award for best historical novel, and The Children of First Man.