Currently reading: Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

I should be at book club tonight discussing this book. There are two reasons why I am not. The first is that I am only half way through the book despite the fact that I was very pleased when this was announced as the choice for this month. I actually went and heard Geraldine Brooks talk when she came to Melbourne last year and she also signed my copy of the book so it was a great excuse to finally actually read the book!

The second and most important reason is that it is the school holidays and the boy invited a friend over for a sleepover. He then rang and asked if it is okay and my answer was not really because I was going to be out tonight and at work tomorrow. It turned out that the friend was already in the driveway - fait accompli. I figured that it would be best if I actually was at home at least tonight.

I am just over half way through the book and I am enjoying it. I generally like Brooks' writing but I have, in the past, had issues with her endings. It will be interesting to see if that is the case with this book. I am kind of wondering about the title, Caleb's Crossing. Yes, there is an important character called Caleb but his story is not the main focus of the book as such. The main character is a young girl, Bethia, and so far she has had more than her fair share of hardship. I just reread my post about her visit last year and am reminded that she actually talked about the reason for using Bethia as the narrator during her talk.

Below are the synopsis and the trailer:

In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. From the few facts that survive of his extraordinary life, Geraldine Brooks creates a luminous tale of love and faith,  magic and adventure. 


When Bethia Mayfield, a spirited twelve-year-old living in the rigid confines of an English Puritan settlement - and the daughter of a Calvinist minister - meets Caleb, 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 feels called to convert the Wampanoag to his own strict faith, he awakens the wrath of the medicine men. Caleb becomes a prize in this contest between old ways and new, eventually taking his place at Harvard, studying Latin and Greek 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 cultures. 


Once again, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks brings to vivid life a shard of little-known history, and through Bethia and Caleb explores the intimate spaces of the human heart.