The Red Heart

In his most beloved, bestselling book, Follow the River, James Alexander Thom wrote the captivating story of a woman kidnapped by the Shawnee who struggled to return to her family. Now, in The Red Heart, Thom once again brings to vivid life the true story of a woman and her captivity with the Lenape Indians.

The Slocums of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, are the best of the white settlers, peace-loving Quakers who are unique for their time in believing that the Indians hold the Light of God inside. It is from this peaceful world that Frances is abducted.

Soon she is immersed in the sacred work and beliefs of her adoptive mother and of all the women of these Eastern tribes. It is the women's responsibility to teach the children and speak in Council, to plant and harvest life-giving crops, to heal the sick and midwife new lives, to celebrate with the men in the yearly Thanksgiving ceremonies with dancing and drums. Frances becomes Maconakwa, the Little Bear Woman of the Miami Indians, and a woman who keeps the good of her people at the center of her heart.

Long after the Indians are beaten, and their last hope, Tecumseh, is killed, the Slocums hear word of their long lost daughter. The family's grown rich by destroying the land to mine anthracite coal,and they head out to the Ohio territory to meet their beloved Frances. But for Maconakwa, it is a moment of truth, the test of whether she truly has a red heart. . . .

Rich in historical detail, alive with Indian life and a time gone forever, The Red Heart is the kind of magnificent novel of American life that only Jim Thom can write.

James Alexander Thom lives in the Indiana hill country near Bloomington with his wife, Dark Rain of the Shawnee Nation, United Remnant Band. He has been a U.S. Marine, a newspaper and magazine editor, and a member of the faculty at the Indiana University Journalism School. Thom is the author of Follow the River, Long Knife, From Sea to Shining Sea, Panther in the Sky, for which he won the prestigious Western Writers of America Spur award for best historical novel, and The Children of First Man.