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Caleb's Crossing

Name: Caleb's Crossing
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)

Geraldine BrooksMay 1, 2011

HarperCollins Australia

A richly imagined novel from the author of the New York Times bestseller, PEOPLE OF THE BOOK. 'CALEB'S CROSSING ... reconfirms Geraldine Brooks's reputation as one of our most supple and insightful novelists' NEW YORK tIMES When Bethia Mayfield, a spirited 12 year old living in the rigid confines of a 17th-century English Puritan settlement, meets Caleb, the young son of a Wampanoag chieftain, the two forge a secret friendship that draws each into the alien world of the other.As Bethia's father, a Calvinist minister, tries to convert the Wampanoag to his own strict faith, he awakens the wrath of the medicine men. Caleb becomes a prize in a contest between old ways and new, eventually taking his place at Harvard, studying alongside the sons of the colonial elite. Fighting for a voice in a society that requires her silence, Bethia becomes entangled in Caleb's struggle to navigate the intellectual and cultural shoals that divide their two worlds. From the few facts that survive of Caleb's extraordinary life as the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College in 1665, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks creates a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure.

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More by Geraldine Brooks

People of the Book: A Novel

Geraldine Brooks

View our feature on Geraldine Books’s People of the Book.From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of March, the journey of a rare illuminated manuscript through centuries of exile and war

In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she begins to unlock the book’s mysteries. The reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book’s journey from its salvation back to its creation.

In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim risks his life to protect it from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of fin-de-siècle Vienna, the book becomes a pawn in the struggle against the city’s rising anti-Semitism. In inquisition-era Venice, a Catholic priest saves it from burning. In Barcelona in 1492, the scribe who wrote the text sees his family destroyed by the agonies of enforced exile. And in Seville in 1480, the reason for the Haggadah’s extraordinary illuminations is finally disclosed. Hanna’s investigation unexpectedly plunges her into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics. Her experiences will test her belief in herself and the man she has come to love.

Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is at once a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity, an ambitious, electrifying work by an acclaimed and beloved author.

Caleb's Crossing: A Novel

Geraldine Brooks

A bestselling tale of passion and belief, magic and adventure from the author of The Secret Chord and of March, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

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.

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5.0

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Additional Information

Publisher

HarperCollins Australia

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Published on

May 1, 2011

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Pages

432

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ISBN

9780730452386

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Features

Flowing text

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Best For

Web, Tablet, Phone, eReader

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Language

English

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Genres

Fiction / General

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Content Protection

This content is DRM protected.

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