Around the year 1789, the last of the Nicolenos Chumash living on an island off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, are rounded up and brought to the mission on the mainland. But one captive, Sage, escapes when she jumps overboard to return to the island for her daughter. Ten years later, a search party is sent out from Santa Barbara to find this "ghost woman." The search is successful, and Sage, now called Soledad, is converted to European ways and religion, but not without force. She suffers emotional and psychological abuse at the hands of the mission fathers and is raped by the husband of a woman who befriends her. A sad and troubling rendition of the heartbreak resulting from cultural collision and the breakdown of trust between husband and wife. ~--Cynthia Ogorek

In the late 1700s, a young native woman jumps from a sailing ship to rescue her child, left behind when a group of island people are taken by Europeans to a new and harsh life at a California mission settlement. Ten years later, an ambitious friar arranges to have the woman captured and brought to the mainland to serve as an example of Christian salvation. Sent to live with a sea captain and his lonely wife, she is raped by her brutish host, setting in motion a relentless process of violence, retribution, and death that will inflict suffering for two generations. The cinematic narrative employs several points of view, surrounding the reader with period flavors and settings as the tragedy unfolds. Highly recommended for all fiction collections. A fine choice for a booktalk to adults and older YAs.-- Barbara Valle, Cty. of Los Angeles P.L., Norwalk (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Based on a Native American legend of a solitary, apparation-like woman who once roamed the California coast, Thornton's ( Imagining Argentina ) deeply felt but overly schematic new novel tells the story of Sage, a Chumash Indian woman, and her tragic encounter with white civilization. When her entire village is captured and enslaved and her infant daughter dies, Sage is left behind to wander her island home for 10 years. Finally, she too is caught and turned over to Spanish priest Fray Santos, who is determined that she will become a Christian. Given a new name, Soledad, and forcibly indoctrinated with Christian theology, she is installed in the household of rancher Henry Harper, whose pious wife Elizabeth becomes her protector. Harper, however, rapes Soledad, impregnating her. Soledad hangs herself, beginning a cycle of blackmail, incest and ultimate retribution that spans two generations. Trying to give his story Obviously aspiring to mythic proportions, Thornton attempts to invest Soledad's life and ghostly legacy with mystical significance, but the portentous prose fails to resonate; after a compelling beginning, the narrative is often inert and contrived. The book's impact lies in its wider implications: Thornton's depiction of the injustice inflicted on Native Americans, much of it in the name of religion, and its lasting damage. Author tour. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved