Susanna Moore

The book begins with an anonymous woman, who later takes the name Sarah, fleeing an abusive husband and abandoning her child to go west. She was supposed to meet a friend but the friend has died since her last letter and she is left with no money and no job in a strange town. She marries Dr. Brinton and they move to the Indian Agency where he is the resident physician. She has two children and soon becomes freinds with women among the Sioux. The story is set during the Sioux Uprising of 1862 and is historical fiction. During the uprising, Sarah and her children are abducted by the Sioux for protection, but because of her friendship whe becomes outcast among the white settlers. And so becomes a woman without any real place to belong. The book deals with abuse and racial conflict, addiction and mental health issues and is a poignant tale of a woman's struggle and suffering set amongst the suffering of the Native Americans during a tragic time in our history. The plot is outstanding and the characters are well developed and engaging. But I struggled with her writing style which seemed to me to move the story painfully slow at times. This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking book but it was hard for me to engage because it moved so slowly.… (mais)

This is an interesting, dark chapter in American history when the fictional Sarah Browne leaves her abusive husband and her daughter in Providence to reunite with a childhood friend she knew when they were orphans in a cruel institution for the indigent. When she finally reaches her destination in the West, she discovers her friend has died, leaving her without any resources. She eventually marries a doctor, who has his own demons, and they have two children. Her husband is appointed after seven years to an Indian Agency as the resident physician. The Indians for whom he cares, in addition to the White population, are mainly Sioux.

Tensions arise when the Sioux are without the money and food they've been promised under the treaty. The local Indian agent is particularly unsympathetic to their needs as the Sioux families die from starvation. The Sioux warriors react by killing Whites in local settlements. Sarah and her children are taken into custody by the Sioux and treated more fairly than most given the relationships she had developed. Predictably, the military responds and a chaos of killing begins. Sarah and her children are taken into custody by the military, and she has no idea if her husband is alive or dead.

There are no winners in these bloody battles, and it is especially poignant to reflect on the injustices done to the Indians as Indigenous People Day approaches.… (mais)