The Caregiver at Wounded Knee

Lee (Beneath a Peaceful Moon) concludes her Enduring Hope series with the potent story of a Lakota woman finding her way in late 19th-century America. After her parents died when she was 12, Rose Rushing Water was removed from her community by government officials, sent to a boarding school, and then educated as a nurse in Boston. As an adult, she returns to Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to provide medical care to the Lakota people. She’s also eager to relearn her native language and customs and enlists the help of her brother’s friend, Nathaniel Gray Cloud, though they meet in secret to avoid the scrutiny of U.S. government officials on the reservation. As tensions spike between the settlers and the Lakota people, Rose struggles to care for her patients with meager resources and to retain her belief in a Christian God who would let her people suffer. When tragedy strikes, Rose must decide whether to continue to risk her life by staying on the reservation or renounce her past and start over elsewhere. Lee’s portrait of Rose is vivid and poignant, bringing to life what it means to straddle two worlds without fully inhabiting either. This immersive historical will stick with readers long after the final page. (Feb.)