Caleb`s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks...Reviewed by Suzie Gurr

I found Caleb`s Crossing to be an enlightening and absorbing read. It is beautifully written from beginning to end. The story of Bethia is convincing and moving, suspenseful and absorbing. As a woman of her time she succeeds in reaching across the centuries to speak eloquently of her circumstances,challenges and emotions.
Set in Martha`s Vineyard in the 1600`s, Bethia a young girl seeking refuge from the drudgery and tragedy of her everyday life as an early settler and daughter of a religious but liberal father, secretly wanders away from the home settlement. While enjoying the escape and freedom this allows her she begins an unlikely friendship with a Native American Indian youth. As they teach each other their languages they cannot imagine they ways in which the future will intertwine, change and challenge their beliefs, cultures and customs, their loves and lives.
The book extended my vocabulary, sending me to the dictionary more than once but in my mind that confirms Geraldine Brooks as one of my favourite writers as the language only serves to take one further and more convincingly into the 1600s.