The Orenda
Books | Fiction / Historical / 20th Century / General
4
(229)
Joseph Boyden
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 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 amongst 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 each other through intricately woven acts of duplicity, small battles erupt into bigger wars and a nation emerges from worlds in flux.
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More Details:
Author
Joseph Boyden
Pages
256
Publisher
Penguin Canada
Published Date
2013-09-10
ISBN
0143189409 9780143189404
Ratings
Google: 5
Community ReviewsSee all
"The first book I've really devoured in quite a while. Normally the bleakness of "can-lit" puts me off but the three distinct voices interwoven, telling a simultaneous story which is part of the foundation of our country, drew me in from the first pages. The religious and cultural dance and tensions helped me to better understand some of the current tension between white, often Christian, settler people, and the aboriginal peoples of Canada today."
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Teresa Prokopanko