The setting for this haunting and encyclopedically researched work of history is colonial Massachusetts, where English Puritans first endeavored to "civilize" a "savage" native populace. There, in February 1704, a French and Indian war party descended on the village of Deerfield, abducting a Puritan minister and his children. Although John Williams was eventually released, his daughter horrified the family by staying with her captors and marrying a Mohawk husband. Out of this incident, Bancroft Prize–winning historian John Devos has constructed a gripping narrative that opens a window into North America where English, French, and Native Americans faced one another across gulfs of culture and belief-and sometimes crossed over. "The words that come to mind when reading his book are: skill, historical acuity, and intellectual integrity." "Fascinating and alluring in the way the best writing on history can be." "Powerful and useful…Demos has achieved the kind of balancing act that historians constantly strive for but seldom achieve." "Fascinating, lively, and especially timely to an age struggling to understand the implications of its own cross-cultural encounters."
