In This Strange Soil

Against a backdrop of events in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), both in the New World and the Old, Hensley weaves together two events of 1704: the well-known February raid on Deerfield by Indians under French command; and the abduction in August of four young boys of the Rice family from the hamlet of Chauncy (Westborough), Massachusetts, by a small band of Mohawks from the Jesuit mission of Kahnawake in Canada. Thefictional narrator, Jesuit Father Vincent de Surville, records his experiences in letters to his brother, a cavalry officer with Louis XIV's army. Through these accounts, we accompany him on the march to Deerfield in the dead of winter, sharing his privations and those of the 112 captives taken in the raid. When two of the Rice boys arrive at the mission later in the year, we participate in their evolution from English Puritans to Mohawk Catholics under Father Vincent's tutelage. "Hensley's Jesuit narrator records his experiences, thoughts observations in a voice so consistent and believable that one might forget he's fictional. His perspective opens history and, in particular, humanizes missionary activity in the New World-both the good and the bad of it. Respectfully researched and thoughtfully composed, In This Strange Soil is a work of grace and integrity." Libby Maxey, Editor, Thornapple Press