Title: Sacred Wilderness
Author: Susan Power
Context: Sacred Wilderness is a historical fiction novel by Susan Power set in the Americas in the 1600s. Lives of four women from different backgrounds and eras are explored in this novel.
Synopsis: The four women get together with the aim of restoring foundation to a mixed-blood and mixed –up woman who have been living an American dream only to find that it is a considerable trap of emptiness.
The women are termed as wisdom-keepers, Clan Mothers however they are anything but women who are aloof, stern, grief stricken, filled with joy and risking their lives and hearts for the people they love. Sacred Wilderness swirls through time right from Minnesota in the present day times to the Mohawk territory of the 1620s to the biblical world in the ancient times which an indigenous woman brings to life. This indigenous woman later would come to be recognized as the Virgin Mary. The lyrical novel in lushly imagined prose of unparalleled necessity reveals secrets of the Clan Mothers, comic tales, the insights of prophecy which are so heartbreakingly painful and perhaps powerful enough to save the world.
Sacred Wilderness does have the magic. The rich socialite and protagonist, Candice is out of touch with her husband. With her housekeeper, Gladys’s help she encounters native guides, the spirit of Jesus’s mother, Maryam and a mask embodying the history of Mohawk she gradually adopts her personal and tribal culture and history. With these activities she tries filling her empty days.
She keeps her Mohawk identity disconnected from the rest of her personality and keeps a native art collection in her closed room. She starts getting a better understanding about herself when she learns the stories of her parents and ancestors, finally.
Other works by the Author:
1994 – The Grass Dancer
1998 – Strong Heart Society
2002 – Roofwalker