The Interpreter: A Story of Two Worlds - Hardcover

Moss, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031285739X ISBN 13: 9780312857394

Publisher: Forge, 1994

Synopsis

Conrad Weiser, an Indian agent during the French and Indian War, is sent to live among the Mohawks to learn their language and culture and leads German settlers to Pennsylvania, where they carve out a new life from the wilderness. By the author of The Firekeeper.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

A talky tract that's less historical novel than deadly earnest brief for the previously unheralded notion that the settlement of America's Middle Colonies owed much to a sort of psychic friends network. In 1710, teenager Conrad Weiser comes to the New World with the Germans who were recruited by England's Queen Anne to populate the desolate province of New York. The refugees from Europe's seemingly endless wars and religious conflicts quickly find themselves oppressed anew, this time by deceitful, avaricious agents of the Crown. Conrad's father Johann soon sends him to live among the Mohawks. A gifted linguist, the pioneering exchange student takes quickly to Indian ways; perceived as an `old soul' by his hosts (whose younger generation is losing touch with the spirits, great or otherwise, as white men overrun their ancestral domain), he's apprenticed to the shaman Longhair, who tutors him in the fine art of dreaming. An apt pupil, Conrad engages in many out- of-body experiences. When not larking with hawks or eagles, he conjures up the site where Captain Kidd buried treasure on Martha's Vineyard. Journeying there in corporeal form, he retrieves gold and jewelry enough to buy his fellow Germans their own land. While he's prepared to continue his visionary studies with the Real People (as Moss's Indians style themselves), Longhair instead sends him home to serve as a bridge between whites and reds. Conrad marries, starts a family, and eventually leads the Germans into the Pennsylvania wilderness, where (with guidance from a supreme being, the Peacemaker, and his avatar Hiawatha) the group establishes a prosperous farming community. Bad medicine from the usually diverting Moss (The Firekeeper, 1995, etc.), made no easier to swallow by constant prattle about body thieves, death hammers, dreambodies, lifegivers, shapeshifting, soul takers, and timefolders, not to mention the odd anachronism (``She is an arendiwanen, a woman of power. That's something you don't mess with''). -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The harsh reality, the natural beauty, and the mystical wonder of the American frontier is vividly rendered in this spellbinding fictional profile of a genuinely remarkable pioneer. One of a group of German refugees promised land and opportunity in the New World by Queen Anne of England, young Conrad Weiser sets sail for the colonies in 1710. Arriving in New York, the Palatine Germans who survived the grueling voyage are incensed to learn that they must function as indentured servants for an indefinite period of time before claiming their property. As provisions become scarce and conditions deteriorate, Conrad helps organize a revolt against the British authorities. A natural leader with an independent spirit and an affinity for languages, Conrad spends time among the Mohawks in order to learn their language, religion, and customs. Eventually he serves as an interpreter, Indian agent, and leader of a colony of German settlers in Pennsylvania. Painstakingly researched and richly steeped in authentic period detail, the evocative narrative unfolds into a vibrant tale of courage and adventure. Margaret Flanagan

Edition details

• Publisher: Forge
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 031285739X
• ISBN 13: 9780312857394
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 346