The Lost Wife: A Novel

Drawing partly from a true story, it brings to life a devastating Native American revolt & the woman caught in the middle of the conflict. In the summer of 1855, Sarah Brinton abandons her husband & child to make the long & difficult journey from Rhode Island to Minnesota Territory, where she plans to reunite with a childhood friend. When she arrives at a small frontier post on the edge of the prairie without family or friends & with no prospect of work or money, she quickly remarries & has two children. Anticipating unease & hardship at the Indian Agency, where her husband Dr. John Brinton is the new resident physician, Sarah instead finds acceptance & kinship among the Sioux women at a nearby reservation. 

The Sioux tribes, however, are wary of the white settlers & resent the rampant theft of their land. Promised payments by the federal government are never made, & starvation and disease soon begin to decimate their community. Tragically & inevitably, this leads to the Sioux Uprising of 1862. During the conflict, Sarah & her children are abducted by the Sioux, who protect her, but because she sympathizes with her captors, Sarah becomes an outcast to the white settlers. In the end, she is lost to both worlds. 

Intimate & raw, The Lost Wife is a brilliantly subversive tale of the conquest of the American West.

Author’s Note

While The Lost Wife is a book of fiction, many of the characters in it are based on historical figures, in particular Sarah F. Wakefield & her husband, Dr. John L. Wakefield. I have changed the names of some of the characters, although not all.

SUSANNA MOORE is the author of several novels, including In the Cut, Sleeping Beauties, & The Whiteness of Bones, & 4 books of nonfiction. She lives in New York City.