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Home>Services>For Book Lovers>Book Clubs>Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Books
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| Blurb | | The new novel from Pulitzer Prize-winner Geraldine Brooks, author of the Richard and Judy bestseller March, Sunday Times bestseller ‘Year of Wonders’ and ‘People of the Book’.
Martha’s Vineyard, 1650s: Bethia Mayfield is a young girl growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor, amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless, bright and curious, but denied the education that her brothers receive, she slips away as often as she can to explore the island’s wild landscapes and observe its native Wampanoag inhabitants. At the age of twelve, she encounters Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the children form a secret friendship that gradually draws each into the alien world of the other.
Meanwhile, Bethia’s minister father is trying to convert the Wampanoag, awakening the wrath of the tribe’s shaman against whose magic he must test his own beliefs. And when he takes it upon himself to educate Caleb, it will further divide the communities – within a year the boy is learning Latin and Greek, and leaves the island to study at Harvard. As Caleb makes the crossing into white culture, Bethia finds herself pulled in the opposite direction. Trapped by the narrow strictures of her faith and her gender, she seeks connections with Caleb’s world that will challenge her beliefs and set her at odds with her community…
(From Fourth Estate) Top
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| Author details | | Geraldine Brooks was born and raised in Australia. After moving to the USA she worked for eleven years on the Wall Street Journal, covering stories from some of the world's most troubled areas, including Bosnia, Somalia and the Middle East.
Her first novel, A Year of Wonders, was set during the English plague year of 1666, and became an international bestseller. In December 2005 March', her second novel, was selected by the Washington Post as one of the five best fiction works published during the year. In April 2006, the book earned Brooks the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
She lives with her husband and son in rural Virginia and is currently a fellow at Harvard University.
(From Fourth Estate)Top
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| Discussion Points |
| How successful is Bethia as the narrator? Would Caleb’s voice be more successful in telling this story? | | What do you think about the titlee, Caleb’s Crossing? | | Discuss the purchase of the island from the Wampanoag people. ‘What’s done is done and it was done lawfully". What are the moral implications? | | Bethia and Caleb both face expectations and challenges. Who faces the greatest, and why? | | How successful is Brooks in creating fiction from history? | | Can you represent history in fiction?
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