Description
Description
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.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
Praise for Child of These Tears
Molly McNett's Child of These Tears is a rich and mesmerizing collage of visions and dreams, nightmares and fevers-as artful as it is unnerving, as beautiful as it is strange. What a treat it is to watch McNett refract who we are through so many shifting lenses, of language, of religion, of water, of light, and illuminate the mysteries of ourselves in this astonishing world.
-Paul Harding, author of Tinkers, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Child of These Tears is a fascinating, persuasive, carefully researched adaptation of an authentic eighteenth century captivity narrative. But in Molly McNett's gorgeous telling a novel about the stolen little girl Constance yields as well a wise and exacting meditation on the conflicts between varying cultures, religions, disciplines, and affections-the vexing, internal, fettering strife that is ever persistent in our world. It's a remarkable book.
-Ron Hansen, author of Mariette in Ecstasy
When Indigenous nations took English settlers captive in the early 1700s, what were the spiritual and human consequences? Child of These Tears is a polyphonic weave of voices and forms-epistolary, confessional, commonplace book, captivity narrative, interior monologue-that powerfully blends history with artistry and vision. Molly McNett possesses the rare gift of transforming deep research into luminous, unforgettable prose. Her characters are exposed to the weathers of suffering and sacrifice in a landscape wild with mystery and the ache of growth and grace. Redemptive, at times humorous and tender, this dazzling novel meditates on what is lost between worlds-and what, miraculously, might be found.
-Amy Newman, author of An Incomplete Encyclopedia of Happiness and Unhappiness
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
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