Beheld

Starred review from December 16, 2019
Nesbit (The Wives of Los Alamos) cleverly recasts pilgrim history in this deeply enjoyable novel of murder in Plymouth Colony, Mass. To those living in Plymouth in 1630, the colony is not the land of freedom they’d envisioned. The Puritans hold an iron grip on religious observations, alienating the Anglicans among them, while the colonists haven’t received the benefits promised to them, such as land. John and Eleanor Billington, former indentured servants, distinguish themselves as rebels in the colony, never hesitating to point out inequities and hypocrisy, particularly those of prominent settlers William and Alice Bradford and the storied Myles Standish. After the arrival of John Newcomen, a new settler who’s been promised land belonging to the Billingtons, more than one person ends up dead. Capturing the alternating voices of the haves (the Bradfords, Newcomen) and the have-nots (the Billingtons), Nesbit’s lush prose adds texture to stories of the colony’s women, and her deep immersion in primary sources adds complexity to the historical record. Fans of Miriam Toews’s Women Talking will eagerly devour this gripping historical. Agent: Julie Barer, The Book Group. (Mar.) Due to a production error, this review originally published without a star.

February 28, 2020

This revisionist history-based story of the voyage of the Mayflower and the first ten years of Plymouth Colony is told mainly by three women--Dorothy Bradford, the first wife of William Bradford, Alice Bradford, the second wife of by-then governor Bradford (a post he held for some 30 years, more akin to king than anything else), and Eleanor Billington, the wife of the biggest "troublemaker" in the colony, John Billington. Readers of William Bradford's accepted history, Of Plymouth Plantation, will find here described a considerably less cohesive and righteous place. From the early pages, we hear much of all the common squabbles of people living in close proximity during very hard times, but most intriguingly an increasing foreshadowing of a murder to come, over a land dispute between Billington and a newly arrived settler. VERDICT Readers who enjoy historical fiction, told with fine literary style, will be delighted. Nesbit (The Wives of Los Alamos) undertook considerable historical documentary research to get the details right, and the results should also appeal to anyone with an interest in colonial history. [See Prepub Alert, 9/16/19.]--Vicki Gregory, Sch. of Information, Univ. of South Florida, Tampa

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February 1, 2020
Ten years after founding the first Pilgrim settlement, the colonists are forced to address the strife that roils beneath their utopian dreams. It's an August morning in the Plymouth colony, the year 1630. It's been 10 years since a group arrived on the Mayflower to start life afresh, and today is a day of great anticipation: A fresh wave of people is expected to arrive. Alice Bradford, wife of the colony's governor, William, is especially anxious. On this new ship will be her stepson, the child left behind by William and his first wife, Dorothy, when they undertook the perilous Mayflower journey. Alice remains haunted by Dorothy's death, which occurred under mysterious circumstances, and feels guilt for having usurped her childhood companion for the powerful role of William Bradford's wife. But the day is full of anticipation in other ways, too. Nesbit (The Wives of Los Alamos, 2014) uses alternating narrators, chiefly Alice Bradford and Eleanor Billington, the wife of a disgruntled, disillusioned colonist, to show the tension and unrest building among those in charge of the fledgling settlement and those who are chafing against the powerful. A murder will be committed by the time this August day has come to a close, and by the time it does, the settlers will question whether or not they are truly "fashioned in God's favor," as they once believed. Although the pacing here can be off-putting (the buildup to the promised disaster is long; the climax, too short) and the sensitively rendered but still peripheral role that the Wampanoag Tribe plays could have used more development, Nesbit's novel has all the juicy sex, lies, and violence of a prestige Netflix drama and shines surprising light on the earliest years of America, massive warts and all. A dramatic look at the Pilgrims as seen through women's eyes.

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December 1, 2019
Nesbit illuminates a time in our past through the eyes of women. As she did in her prize-winning The Wives of Los Alamos (2014), here she focuses on the women on the periphery of the murder of a white man in the Plymouth settlement of 1630. In addition to the deprivation and disease that have beset Plymouth over the previous decade, the community is also riven by differences of class and faith, as exemplified by John Billington, a former indentured servant who sends his protests about the Puritan administration back to the colony's funders in England. The murder and subsequent trial, based on fact, further alter the colony's climate. Alice Bradford, wife of the colony's governor, William Bradford?and best friend of his first wife, Dorothy, whose death may or may not have been accidental?recognizes the precariousness of her position as she tries to support her husband and reason with Billington's wife, Eleanor. Restoring women's voices, primarily through Alice and Eleanor, adds a new and welcome dimension to our history, made more vivid by solid research and clear, concise prose. In Nesbit's hands, history once again comes alive.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)