Caleb's Crossing

A Novel

By: Geraldine Brooks

Narrated by: Jennifer Ehle

Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

A richly imagined new novel from the author of the New York Times best seller People of the Book. Once again, Geraldine Brooks takes a remarkable shard of history and brings it to vivid life.

In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, Brooks has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure. The narrator of Caleb's Crossing is Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless and curious, she yearns after an education that is closed to her by her sex. As often as she can, she slips away to explore the island's glistening beaches and observe its native Wampanoag inhabitants. At 12, she encounters Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a tentative secret friendship that draws each into the alien world of the other. Bethia's minister father tries to convert the Wampanoag, awakening the wrath of the tribe's shaman, against whose magic he must test his own beliefs. One of his projects becomes the education of Caleb, and a year later, Caleb is in Cambridge, studying Latin and Greek among the colonial elite. There, Bethia finds herself reluctantly indentured as a housekeeper and can closely observe Caleb's crossing of cultures.

Like Brooks' beloved narrator Anna in Year of Wonders, Bethia proves an emotionally irresistible guide to the wilds of Martha's Vineyard and the intimate spaces of the human heart. Evocative and utterly absorbing, Caleb's Crossing further establishes Brooks's place as one of our most acclaimed novelists.

©2011 Geraldine Brooks (P)2011 Penguin

Critic reviews

“Caleb’s Crossing could not be more enlightening and involving. Beautifully written from beginning to end, it reconfirms Geraldine Brooks’ reputation as one of our most supple and involving novelists.” (Jane Smiley, The New York Times Book Review)

“Brooks filters the early colonial era through the eyes of a minister’s daughter growing up on the island known today as Martha’s Vineyard…[Bethia’s] voice - rendered by Brooks with exacting attention to the language and rhythm of the 17th century - is captivatingly true to her time.” (The New Yorker)

“A dazzling act of the imagination. . .Brooks takes the few known facts about the real Caleb, and builds them into a beautifully realized and thoroughly readable tale…this is intimate historical fiction, observing even the most acute sufferings and smallest heroic gestures in the context of major events.” (Matthew Gilbert, The Boston Globe)

This book deserves a better narrator

Would you try another book from Geraldine Brooks and/or Jennifer Ehle?

Geraldine Brooks offers a well-researched story with evocative details of time and place. About halfway through decided to skip the Audible version and go to the printed word because Jennifer Ehle's narrative was so bad as to be distracting.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Bethia was the only character I was deeply involved with. I'd have like deeper development of her brother, I think he can be rendered more realistically and as less of a cad (in the context of his time and mores). I'd like to know more of Caleb's interior life -- the title character, but never fully realized.

How could the performance have been better?

Ehle's stilted English disturbed the reader's involvement with the story. It's one thing to enunciate clearly, but this reading lacked flow for the determination to enunciate syllables in a way that would never be heard in conversational English.

Do you think Caleb's Crossing needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No need, the book stands on its own.

Good story, LOUSY reader

Would you try another book from Geraldine Brooks and/or Jennifer Ehle?

I might try another historical fiction by Brooks, but I would never listen to another book read by Jennifer Ehle. It was stilted, no expression, and took away from the story.

What didn’t you like about Jennifer Ehle’s performance?

It was stilted, no expression, and took away from the story.

Also Bethia’s Crossing

I started out not liking this book because I could not stand the way Bethia was treated. I ended up liking the story, though, once I started to care about the characters, and especially Bethia. She stood her ground the only way she could in the 1660s without finding herself removed from the community or worse! I admire her strength and ingenuity.

The book is much more about Bethia than it is about Caleb, but he also was a strong character who stood his ground in the best way he knew how. That must be why they remained friends for so long.

Narrator Jennifer Ehle was great, although the pronunciation of the article “a” as a long vowel started to wear on me after a while. I assume she did it that way because that was the way it was pronounced in the 1660s which is fine, but still annoying to the modern ear. Both author and narrator did a great job of handling the older forms of English. That part was very interesting to me.

Superb

A powerful tale, beautifully told. A new perspective on White and Indian lives. I hope to read more.

Historical gem

An exceptional historical novel. The accounting of the 1600s in NewEngland was revealing and educational. Geraldine Brooks is a masterful writer.

Based on a historical person

Nice, interesting book written about early 17th C Americans , both English and Native Americans...trying to get along on Martha's Vineyard. I liked the writing, -dialogue in the vernacular of the day-
Story of gender and race, nature and the importance of education.
Unique read which gives us a good picture of our country "back in the day."

Thoroughly enjoyed this - PARTICULARLY the reader

Would you listen to Caleb's Crossing again? Why?

This writer researched her topic and time period.

What did you like best about this story?

I really liked the character development and the writing.

Which character – as performed by Jennifer Ehle – was your favorite?

Hmmm, hard to choose, I liked most all of them. The reader was excellent!

Who was the most memorable character of Caleb's Crossing and why?

Bethia and Caleb are both very strong characters.

Any additional comments?

Readers of fiction and historical fiction will enjoy this book.

Abandoned Because of the Reader

The enunciation of every. single. word. was. so. distracting. that. I. had. to. abandon. the. audio. and. finish the book by reading it.

Facinating & riveting

I loved this story. Geraldine Brooks knows how to tell an entrancing story. This is one of my favorite books.

Little Known History Brought to Life

What made the experience of listening to Caleb's Crossing the most enjoyable?

Brook's descriptions of the land and the sea.

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed learning about the first Native American to attend Harvard and imagining what life might have been like in an early American colony. I particularly enjoyed the way Bethia's demeanor changed when she was in her element, describing nature and the things she loved. Those passages made the story really come alive.