Ten-year-old Garahstah sat down to draw a picture of the wolf she
had seen in her dream, and discovered the talent that was to give
her her adult name and help through her life. Set in 14th-century
America, this is Garahstah's story, from her carefree childhood
with her clan as the daughter of an Iroquois chief, through capture
and slavery, escape, near starvation and her rescue by the Naskapi
Indians. But this is only the beginning of her journey. Driven ever
northward to avoid being punished for killing her master, she takes
refuge with the Inuit and travels with them to a new home and her
destiny - as decreed by her grandmother's spirit in a dream - as
the wife of a Greenlander. In spite of the many cruelties Garahstah
encounters, it is not until she lives with the mainly Christian
farmers of Greenland that she encounters true hatred and racism.
This is an epic-style novel, even though the events only cover
about six years in Garahstah's life. It is superbly told and the
customs, lifestyles, hardships and beliefs of the five tribes
Garahstah lives with are told with great skill and in great detail.
It makes for fascinating reading and throws light on a little-known
time and people. (Kirkus UK)
The girl known as Picture Maker because of her great ability at drawing and prophecy, is the daughter of one of the warriors and the granddaughter of the clan leader. She is captured by one of her family's enemies and because she was regarded as a trophy is kept alive and enslaved. When she discovers she is pregnant by one of her captors, she manages to escape, and, inspired by the destiny she had depicted, begins the long, mysterious journey which ends in the furthermost parts of the Western Hemisphere.
There, still an outsider but revered and protected, she lives for a time in peace with an Inuit tribe until she meets and falls in love with Halvard, a Norse hunter, who seems to hold the key to the riddle of her birth. Together they travel on to Greenland but Picture Maker's special gifts make her regarded with suspicion, Halvard is attacked and her daughter will be taken from her, in what seems a terrible repetition of what happened to her so long ago.
Picture Maker is a powerful story, with a large cast of vivid characters, in a fascinating setting which will appeal to readers of Jean Auel and Jane Smiley. Penina Spinka, an award-winner for her children's books, has created a rich picture of the period and the people, of the ways of the societies and religions, and above all of Picture Maker herself, as she grows beyond her once narrow, ordered confines: an amazing and very human survivor.
At its heart, Picture Maker is a novel of high adventure, of love and loss, and survival under the harshest circumstances.
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