Review: 'The Lost Wife,' by Susanna Moore
FICTION: One woman's dramatic story reopens a bloody chapter in Minnesota history.
By Claude Peck Special to the Star Tribune
April 14, 2023 — 7:45am

It's easy to see why Susanna Moore, who has written both fiction and nonfiction, was drawn to novelize the true story of Sarah Wakefield, a white woman who arrived in the Minnesota Territory in the mid-1850s and famously spent six weeks as a captive of Indians during the 1862 Dakota Conflict.

After the war, Wakefield was denounced for a book she wrote ("Six Weeks in the Sioux Tepees") that sympathized with her captors, including a warrior named Chaska, who saved the lives of her and her children and briefly counted Sarah as his wife.

The story has it all: the bloody hell of war, racism, sexism, true grit, culture clash, revenge, corruption, injustice. Even some romance. Is that Netflix calling?

Moore's undertaking, as a white woman writing about Native Americans, is fraught, to say the least.

While she succeeds in creating a vivid tale of frontier adventure and peril, her book is best seen as a portal to more reading (including the Wakefield book, still widely available) aimed at a fuller understanding of a watershed in Minnesota history.

In "The Lost Wife" Moore changes some but not all the names of historical figures. She has "added facts that I've discovered along the way, alongside much from my imagination."

Moore's Sarah, 25, flees an abusive husband in Providence, R.I., and travels alone to Shakopee, Minn.

A fearful and exhilarated Sarah describes her newfound freedom: "I don't know what to do with so much feeling. My life will now be one of improvisation. I hadn't known how easily a new life may be made." The frontier, for her, is both geographical and emotional.

She soon marries a thoughtful, laudanum-drinking frontier physician whose patients include whites and Indians. They have two children and move west to an Indian agency near present-day Granite Falls, Minn.

The prosperous couple share food and belongings with their Indian neighbors, employ them at their house and learn their language.

Any semblance of peaceful relations between whites and Indians had evaporated by the early 1860s. Treaties signed in previous years were proving advantageous mainly to whites, with Indians crowded onto reservations. Food was scarce. So was money. In 1862, government annuities pledged to Indians for their ceded lands were delayed. This sparked isolated raids by Indians against settlers that quickly escalated into war, with hundreds of white settlers killed.

The Dakota Conflict is known for heavy loss of life on both sides, and for hasty trials that led to the hanging in Mankato of 38 Indians just after Christmas in 1862. Forced relocations decimated Native populations in southern Minnesota.

When war breaks out, Sarah and her two small children are captured and held hostage at the encampment of Chief Little Crow.

Moore paints the chaotic scene there: "There were feather beds, some of them ripped apart, their feathers floating in the thick air, and a child's painted rocker. Barrels of whiskey, and bushels of potatoes and corn, and rashers of bacon, and sides of venison, and live cows stumbling in fear. Women fought over sacks of flour and sugar. There was death now, but there was food."

Released after the war, Sarah argues, in vain, for Chaska to be spared from hanging at Mankato alongside others deemed to have committed atrocities.

Reflecting on the war, she believes that for Native chiefs and braves, "victory was never the point. It was their burning, unquenchable rage and the honor that revenge would bring them. … They were always going to be driven from the prairie, bad Indians and good Indians, too, as the whites would say. But it will be easy now."

Claude Peck (www.claudepeck.com) was an editor at the Star Tribune. He lives in Minneapolis and Palm Springs, Calif.

The Lost Wife

By: Susanna Moore.

Publisher: Knopf. 172 pages, $27.

It is absolutely shameful that it took me this long to pick up The Lost Wife. Susanna Moore is one of the greatest living writers we have, her novels showcasing her storytelling abilities over and over again. Though short in nature, this captivating story manages to navigate both a woman finding herself, as well as explore an unbearable period of history.

William Kent Krueger often references the many atrocities inflicted upon the native populations in the US and the scars that they've left throughout the country. Most are told from a more modern day perspective, in retrospect as opposed to the actual time period. This book puts you in the middle of it, so we as readers are in the actual moment of conflict and dealing with fresh wounds and not itchy scars. Which makes it more visceral and difficult to read but no less important.

I enjoyed the first half of this book more than the second. I loved the descriptive scenes of the Lost Wife escaping her husband, ending up in Shakopee, and making a life for herself. I also enjoyed her relationship to the Dakota before the uprising began. I didn't enjoy the second half, which is mostly captivity and battle, not because of the violence but because it felt jolty and fragmented. I couldn't keep track of where they were and what was going on.

Almost unbearable in its depiction of the treatment of the native population, this absorbing account of a woman’s survival, based on a true story, is both strong and not quite satisfying. Moore does a good job of establishing her character and setting, with plenty of visual and sense detail. The story, and the plight of women, is shocking, as mentioned. What disappointed was the choice of a flat tone, heavily descriptive, with no rounding out of the narrative voice. This left me feeling unclear of the narrator’s psychology. Other readers may mind less.

Not knowing where you belonged and no longer knowing who you might be.

Sarah Brinton was lost long before the Sioux uprising of 1862. A woman who was never nurtured by her parents and both of her husbands. Escaping her first husband to find her friend in Minnesota, she found another man that was a resident doctor to the Indian Agency. It was there that she befriended the Indians and was drawn to them. Maybe it was because they were one and the same. A life of oppression. However, when the uprising started, she became an outcast to both cultures.

Her narration is bold. There are no redemptive qualities in her story. No hope given when all is taken away from you.

I was very interested to find out after the read where the resources were drawn from. The author had taken a loose account of Sarah Wakefield and did not give to much information as some authors may do. I was a little disappointed in that.

A special thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review

A few years ago, I read IN THE CUT, by Susanna Moore and her writing captivated me. I was eager to read THE LOST WIFE, which had a different plot than In The Cut. While the subject matter was different, the engaging writing remained and I enjoyed this one.

In the summer of 1855, Sarah Brinton decides to leave an abusive husband and her child behind to make a better life for herself. She remarries and has two children and is enjoying her life, finally. Then, during the Sioux Uprising of 1862, Sarah and her two children are captured by Sioux warriors. One of the warriors ensures their safety until their rescue by federal troops weeks later. Reviled by the whites because she is sympathetic to the Sioux, but never fully accepted by the Sioux, Sarah feels lost and torn.

The writing is reflective of the time period in which the story is set and is structured more akin to a journal than a standard-form novel. I enjoyed it, but it felt a bit more disjointed than In The Cut. Overall, Moore's ability to build tension and evoke emotion is present and I appreciated that this story drew attention to problematic history that is often overlooked in fiction.

Susanna Moore's vivid, powerful eighth novel is inspired by the true story of a white settler caught up in the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. There is much that is of anthropological and historical interest here. Despite the book's small page count, Moore conveys ample information about settler mores in the mid-19th century. At heart, this is a story about survival, and about a mother desperately trying to protect her children and reconnect with the daughter she had to leave behind. The flat storytelling, which may represent a pastiche of period style, could limit reader engagement. Still, it is a vivid account of a lesser-known aspect of the country's war history, putting Indigenous people's suffering at the center. It is also a valuable critique of the American West, and what one character calls its "myth of innocence and abundance."

(Full review at BookBrowse; 3.5 stars)

Sarah Brinton is a lost woman, a wife, a mother and a daughter. Running away from Rhode Island and her first abusive husband to lose her identity into the Minnesota Territory. She is running to her friend and a new life but when she reaches her destination, she learns that her friend has died. She quickly marries again (this part I found confusing, I felt this part needed a bit more detail) and begins anew, new children, new husband and new identity – but still an abused wife.

Sarah becomes close to many native American neighbors and this helps when they attack her wagon and take her back to their camp. Again, she becomes a wife, losing her identity yet again as a doctor’s wife and takes on a new one, as finally a happy wife, married to a Dakota man.

I think Moore did a wonderful job of painting a picture of the territory at that time and I learned from reading this novel. For me there was just not a pull in the read and I am not sure I can put my finger on why. My only guess is that since the book is so short there was just not enough depth of characters and their reasoning; I wasn’t connected enough with the characters and therefore I wasn’t as invested as I wanted to be. However since it was a time and a place that I learned about and wanted to learn more because of the novel (and because I wanted to know more about the characters had I been given the opportunity), I gave it 3.5 stars.

I received this eARC from NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review.

The main character, Sarah, flees her life in Rhode Island: one that has been a series of neglectful and abusive circumstances. Sarah makes her way West on a treacherous journey with limited resources but her own resourcefulness and planning to find her childhood friend. She arrives to find that her friend has died. The narrative jumps ahead about seven years and we learn she has a husband and two children. They live at an Indian Agency in the Dakota Territory.

Although the story is told in the first person, Sarah comes across to me as coldly pragmatic, making it hard to feel for her as a character. Her narrative focuses on details and observations about her experiences, and not so much her emotional reactions. She interacts with several people, but doesn't have close friends that she talks with--she keeps her own counsel. It is hard to get a handle on her.

There are a lot of details about her life: first one of poverty, abuse, and neglect which becomes a more privileged life as the wife of a doctor. That being said, the marriage has its shortcomings, and she spends a lot of time associating with the Indians she meets. We learn much about them, and she seems to have some sympathy for them and affinity with them. And then the Dakota War of 1862 occurs. This is when the uncertainty about how the story will resolve really begins.

This story is largely based on the captivity narrative of Sarah F. Wakefield, and seems to closely follow her story. Despite the detail heavy nature of the story, it is a slim novel that moves at a fairly quick pace. It worked for me--I found the details interesting.

3.5 Stars. I was very much anticipating reading this book as I am very interested in the topic. However, it wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped. The character development was rather flat. It skipped around in the narrative time line, which is fine when it's done well. This felt a little choppy in the narrative transitions and sometimes it took a beat to figure out. The issues of Native Americans land seizures is a part of our history- not one we should be proud of. I always am interested in a new look at this time period. Unfortunately, I would say this was not the best constructed story on this subject. While it was informative, it was a little lacking in creating the feel for the era, to make the reader feel involved and sympathetic to characters in the book. If this is your first foray into Settlers/NA relations in this time period, it's not a bad read. However, there are better option out there. Thanks for this opportunity Net Galley!

The Lost Wife was a really interesting historical novel, based on the true story of a woman who was held captive during the 1862 Sioux Uprising (and who published her own account at the time). When she moves out to Agency lands in Minnesota with her new husband, who is a doctor for the Sioux, she grows close to several of her Native neighbors. When an uprising/war breaks out due to the breaking of treaties and mistreatment by the US government and she is captured, her connections and understanding of the language and culture help her survive. She is, however, shunned by her settler community for embracing the Sioux and does not know what this means for her identity in the future.

Moore did a great job of including lots of details about life in Minnesota during that era that really helped me to envision what it must have actually been like. I also appreciated the inclusion of Dakota folklore as an essential element of the story. I've seen other reviewers say that the flat affect of the storytelling bothered them, and while this is true for me too, I think it does emulate the diary-form that the story is written in for that time, and I assume likely emulates how Sarah Wakefield's accounts were actually written.

A really interesting story and moment in history that I'm glad the author decided to write about. It's not the most thrilling read in the world just because of the way that it's written (make no mistake though, there is a lot of action and suspense to the plot), but I'd still recommend it overall for the sake of learning about this moment in history.

The Lost Wife was an engaging historical read. I loved that it is based off of a real life person, Sarah Wakefield, who actually wrote a book about her experiences as a captive. Sarah's character in the book is unique in that she came from a harsh life working in an asylum for the poor with her deadbeat mother, and then later escapes from an abusive husband.

The writing style can be described as sparse and straightforward. It reads very similar to a diary. In addition to the writing style, the length of the book is less than 200 pages, which also made it very easy to get through the book. It's hard to find short or fast paced historical fiction. I liked that this book is different in that sense.

The Lost Wife also attracted my interest with the inclusion of small details of the time period and setting location. This is always a plus for me because it helps me to understand more about the history in a different way. I haven't read many books set during this time period and setting, so I learned quite a bit about what life was like for the pioneer settlers and the Dakota tribes. This book inspired me to seek out more sources to learn about Sarah Wakefield and the U.S. Dakota War

I devoured this new novel based on the true story of a white woman who was captured by American Indians during the Sioux uprising in 1862. Harsh to read, while being totally propulsive to read.
When Sarah Brinton flees the abusive marriage with her husband, she leaves her daughter behind as well. A woman would only do this if in immediate fear of losing her life. The torturous trip to escape to a friend in the Minnesota territories is fraught with hunger, filth, rats, and swarms of mosquitoes carrying all sorts of disease.
The Sioux uprising did indeed happen. It is a travesty Americans are not proud of. The story deserves to be told. Moore has knocked it out of the book partk.

Sarah Brinton has lived a hapless, misguided life, surviving a childhood in an asylum, horrible parenting, and an abusive husband. She breaks free of her marriage and follows a path laid out by a childhood friend only to find, after a long, hard journey, that the friend has died. And so she reinvents herself with a new name, a new job, and rather quickly, a new husband--a doctor who soon moves her and their two children west to Dakota territory. At first afraid of her new neighbors, Sarah quickly makes friends with her indigenous neighbors, learning their language, and treating them well. This helps her considerably when the local government refuses to pay the tribe what is due and they revolt, capturing and killing many white settlers--including Sarah and her two young children.

The strength of this book is in its fast moving action and period details. It does jag abruptly from one place and time to another, and the ending is poorly conceived. While this book was interesting, many legitimate, historical captive narratives are available and would perhaps be a better choice than this book.

The narrator passes through a series of unfortunate events beginning in 1855. I was really looking forward to this novel but it was boring. There was no character development or dialogs. No feelings. The woman stated everything she did and that’s it.