Captives of the Desert

Name: Captives of the Desert
Rating: 3.71 (202 reviews)

by Zane Grey

First published 1952

Amazon

3.6(202)

In the Navajo country of northeastern Arizona around the end of the First World War, missionary work, reservation life and the illegal liquor trade bring people from very different backgrounds into uneasy contact. At the centre is an unhappy marriage whose tensions are intensified by isolation and by conflicting assumptions about duty, culture and belonging.

The desert setting exposes the pressures created by federal assimilation policies and the paternalism surrounding Native communities in the period. Personal choices become entangled with questions of authority, religion and identity, while the remoteness of the reservation makes the consequences of damaged relationships difficult to escape.