The Orenda

A mesmerizing epic set in the wilds of 17th century America about the battle for the future of the North American continent 'A tour-de-force. Boyden's skill in never allowing the point of view of one of his protagonists to become more seductive than the others is remarkable. It is transparent that Boyden has done his historical homework.The author is too good, however, to make that anything but a subtext. Those layers are there to be savoured. to be secondary to the pursuit of a captivating plot.' Herald A visceral portrait of life at a crossroads, The Orenda opens with a brutal massacre and the kidnapping of the young Iroquois Snow Falls, a spirited girl with a special gift. Her captor, Bird, is an elder and one of the Huron Nation's great warriors and statesmen. It has been years since the murder of his family, and yet they are never far from his mind. In Snow Falls, Bird recognizes the ghost of his lost daughter and sees that the girl possesses powerful magic that will be useful to him on the troubled road ahead. Bird's people have battled the Iroquois for as long as he can remember, but both tribes now face a new, more dangerous threat from afar. Christophe, a charismatic Jesuit missionary, has found his calling among the Huron, and devotes himself to learning and understanding their customs and language in order to lead them to Christ. An emissary from distant lands, he brings much more than his faith to the new world. As these three souls dance with each other through intricately woven acts of duplicity, small battles erupt into bigger wars and a nation emerges from worlds in flux.