Based on the life of Caleb, first Native American to graduate from Harvard College, and his friendship with Bethia Mayfield, the daughter of a Puritan minister and narrator of the story. When Bethia finds herself reluctantly indentured as a housekeeper in a Cambridge household, she can closely observe Caleb's crossing of cultures as he studies at Harvard. Like the author's 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.
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