Child of These Tears

In the early years of the eighteenth century, the settlers living in the hamlet of Hartfield Falls in “English America” face the looming threat posed by historical and political forces beyond their control. Queen Anne’s War has brought the French and their Native American allies into deadly proximity to New England’s colonists. On one fateful day in the depth of winter, young Constance Baker is taken captive in a bloody raid on Hartfield Falls and marched north to Canada—a march she barely survives. Soon her destiny becomes bound up in a struggle between her English parents, the Mohawk tribe into which she has been adopted, and a French Jesuit priest, who reluctantly takes on her spiritual direction. In this crucible of loss and suffering, of clashing faiths and sensibilities—where sacrifices are sometimes demanded and sometimes freely given—all will be irrevocably changed. In a manner reminiscent of George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo, Child of These Tears is told in polyphonic form, through a variety of narrative genres—captivity tale, commonplace book, letters, and journals. The result is a searing, unforgettable novel that explores the nature of memory, belonging, redemption, and grace.