This is great historical fiction which imagines details to the real life story of the first Native American Indian, Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk. to graduate from Harvard College in the late 1600's. The novel is set on an Island that is now Martha's vineyard which at the time was inhabited by Native Americans and Puritans at a time of relative peace. Puritans were trying to peacefully convert Native American's to Christianity which also required educating them in English, Latin and Hebrew. 
 The story is told through the voice of Bethia, a teenage daughter of a pastor who has an insatiable thirst for knowledge of language, culture, history and religion and finds ways to educate herself in a culture that forbid it. 
 This book brings to life, two very different cultures though a special friendship between Bethia and Caleb. I love Geraldine Brook's writing and was thoroughly absorbed in this story.