River Thieves: A Novel

Set at the turn of the 19th century along Newfoundland's rugged shore, "River Thieves" tells the sad story of the extinction of the Beothuk Indians. The tragedy of miscommunication among colonists living in a crude, violent age prefigures the larger loss, that of an entire people.

"Vibrantly written and uniquely evocative" (Denver Post), River Thievesis the riveting story of a group of European settlers of the New World in the early nineteenth century. The Peytons, their enigmatic housekeeper, and the men who manage their fishing and trapping concerns on the shores of Newfoundland live lives of punishing physicality, inarticulate longing, and violence. Their misunderstandings and compromises have tragic consequences not only for their own community but also for the Beothuk, or Red Indians, a people on the verge of extinction. With penetrating insight, Michael Crummey captures both the vast sweep of history and the intimate lives of those caught in its wake.