Nocturnal Book Reviews

The Spirit Keeper is such a lovely, exquisite, unexpectedly touching book, that it almost left me in tears.

Katie is a poor Irish uneducated eighteen-year-old girl whose only dream in an early colonist America is to escape the drudgery of her life. Be careful what you wish for because when she is captured by a pair of Indian savages she is given the opportunity to change her life completely.

Syawa is a Seer of his tribe and he's been travelling for two years looking for the Creature of Fire and Ice who will bring the gift of Immortality to his People. When he sees Katie with her fiery red hair and clear blue eyes on a raid to the colonist farm, he knows that he at last found her and it's up the the young woman to make her choice and go on an epic journey with him and his silent and grumpy bodyguard "Hector".

Katie is completely taken with a gentle, smiling Syawa and decides to escape the misery of her living with the family which totally hates her without understanding the complexity of her decision, thinking only that Syawa wants to take her as his wife.

They go on their epic journey where every village on their way greets Syawa as a Prophet and celebrates his story of finding the Creature of Fire and Ice, and by the time Katie starts to understand the complexity of her role and her decision there is no turning back.

This is a book about a pure cultural clash, wonderful nuances of two very different languages, self-search and love. It's profound, it's tender and it's beautiful. If you are in the mood for a bit of Last of The Mohicans slash Pocahontas, go for it. It's lovely, touching and unhurried; the characterisation is gorgeous.