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tl;dr Review:
A nuanced and page-turning story about a time period within America’s history that’s rarely discussed.
Full Review:
That’s a quote that gets thrown around a lot these days, but rarely in reference to parts of history that few people actually know much about. This book covers a time in our history that to be completely honest with you, I didn’t even realize existed until I was in law school. Beginning in the 1800’s, increasing significantly after the Civil War, and continuing into the twentieth century, these schools sought to take Native Americans from their reservations (willingly or unwillingly) and assimilate them into Western culture, beliefs, and language. These Native American Boarding Schools often pushed this assimilation by “forcibly removing Native Americans from their families, converting them to Christianity, preventing them from learning or practicing indigenous culture and customs, and living in a strict military fashion.” This led to the loss of a variety of traditions, practices, and even languages over time.
The reason I’m explaining all of this is because this book that I’m reviewing, Between Earth and Sky
I was at first somewhat reluctant to read this tale. While the Publisher’s description sounded engaging, it wasn’t something I particularly connected with right off the bat.
On a quiet Philadelphia morning in 1906, a newspaper headline catapults Alma Mitchell back to her past. A federal agent is dead, and the murder suspect is Alma’s childhood friend, Harry Muskrat. Harry—or Asku, as Alma knew him—was the most promising student at the “savage-taming” boarding school run by her father, where Alma was the only white pupil. Created in the wake of the Indian Wars, the Stover School was intended to assimilate the children of neighboring reservations. Instead, it robbed them of everything they’d known—language, customs, even their names—and left a heartbreaking legacy in its wake.
The bright, courageous boy Alma knew could never have murdered anyone. But she barely recognizes the man Asku has become, cold and embittered at being an outcast in the white world and a ghost in his own. Her lawyer husband, Stewart, reluctantly agrees to help defend Asku for Alma’s sake. To do so, Alma must revisit the painful secrets she has kept hidden from everyone—especially Stewart.
Told in compelling narratives that alternate between Alma’s childhood and her present life, Between Earth and Sky is a haunting and complex story of love and loss, as a quest for justice becomes a journey toward understanding and, ultimately, atonement.
I figured it was the retelling of a “white savior” come to fix everything with maybe some acknowledgment of the harm done.
Thankfully though, this book surprised me by being much more nuanced than I originally gave it credit for. Not only was the story written in such a way as to keep you turning the pages until the end but it also served to ignite my interest in discovering more about this time in our history that is frequently glossed over, if discussed at all.
If you’re looking for a read that illuminates an oft-forgotten part of America’s history intertwined with an emotional narrative that is equally surprising as it is compelling, then this is the book for you.
I give it 4.5 out of 5 thumbs up.
