On a humid day in June 1806, on the edge of Ohio's Great Black Swamp,
17-year-old Susanna Quiner watches from behind a maple tree as a band of
Potawatomi Indians kidnaps her four older sisters from their cabin. With
both her parents dead and all the other settlers out in their fields,
Susanna makes the rash decision to pursue them herself. What follows is
a young woman's quest to find her sisters and the parallel story of her
sisters' new lives. One sister is left for dead, and two others are
traded to a band of Wyandots for the price of a horse.
Susanna spends the next five months searching for them, unaware that the
man who loves her, Seth Spendlove, is also in pursuit. Part Potawatomi
himself, Seth unwittingly sets off on his own quest to reclaim his
heritage. He allies himself with a Potawatomi named Koman, and together
they canoe through the Great Black Swamp and into enemy territory
looking for Susanna. Surviving snake bite, near starvation, and
captivity, Susanna transforms herself from the perennial younger sister
to a capable young woman determined to find her family. Thieving
Forest is a riveting novel that demonstrates the true wildness of the
wilderness and the rugged perseverance of those who find themselves
there.
