A moving account of lives in the 1600s, both native and English

I love a good historical novel with a strong protagonist. Geraldine Brooks does not disappoint. She fills in the early history of the late 1670’s in Massachusetts with color and vividness. This novel is almost as good as The Wonder Years, another of her wonderful stories.

Painfully boring. I can't imagine anyone of any age enjoying this book

Geraldine Brooks does a masterful job in transporting her readers back to Martha's Vineyard and Cambridge of the 1600's. European Christian dominance over the native populations, with the prejudice and subjugation is the subtext here. The fictional young woman narrator, Bethia, lends a powerful immediacy to the tale. I just wish it would have been written without using quite so much of the old English. Overall, it is a brilliant work of historical fiction. Highly recommended

Very well written historical fiction. I appreciate authors who do research as it makes their characters come alive. I found it fun that some of the words used had no definition found when I searched. It helped make the story feel older.

I loved this book. As an African American/Native American woman I was afraid this book would be either too painful to read given the cruel experience of Native people at the hands of the English or too "white washed" and therefore also too painful in the other direction to read. It is neither. I also loved "people of the Book". Ms Brooks has a way of making me feel included in her world that astounds me. Thank you Geraldine Brooks. Sala