Booklist Review
The collision of cultures Native and invasive never ceases to reverberate, and Glancy, of mixed heritage, takes seismic readings, charting the deep psychological consequences. This is the third novel in a series about young Indian women navigating wrenching change. Pushing the Bear (1996) is a full-scale historical novel about the Trail of Tears. Stone Heart (2003) is an intimate approach to Sacagawea, and here, Glancy exquisitely imagines the feverish inner life of a remarkable historical figure, Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-80), who is currently being canonized by the Catholic Church. Pocked, frail, and nearly blind after a bout with smallpox that killed her family, Kateri is appalled by violence and dazzled by visions. The struggling Jesuit priest in a rough-hewn frontier church, touched by her suffering and purity, reads scripture to her, and she bravely converts. Glancy interweaves Kateri's blazing penitent thoughts and cosmic dreams with the grim journal entries of several priests tormented by the harsh winter wilderness and their failure to communicate with the people they mean to save, creating a lancingly beautiful journey into pain and spirit.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2009 Booklist