Calebs Crossing (Large Print)

Description

Once again, Geraldine Brooks takes a remarkable shard of history and brings it to vivid life. In 1665, a young man from Marthas Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, Brooks has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure. The narrator of Calebs Crossing is Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless and curious, she yearns after an education that is closed to her by her sex. As often as she can, she slips away to explore the islands glistening beaches and observe its native Wampanoag inhabitants. At twelve, she encounters Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a tentative secret friendship that draws each into the alien world of the other. Bethias minister father tries to convert the Wampanoag, awakening the wrath of the tribes shaman, against whose magic he must test his own beliefs. One of his projects becomes the education of Caleb, and a year later, Caleb is in Cambridge, studying Latin and Greek among the colonial elite. There, Bethia finds herself reluctantly indentured as a housekeeper and can closely observe Calebs crossing of cultures. Like Brookss beloved narrator Anna in Year of Wonders, Bethia proves an emotionally irresistible guide to the wilds of Marthas Vineyard and the intimate spaces of the human heart. Evocative and utterly absorbing, Calebs Crossing further establishes Brookss place as one of our most acclaimed novelists.