A sprawling story, covering several generations, confronting social, historical and racial tensions: an epic in its approach.
The Cherokee, more than any other Native American people, embraced white culture and emulated its institutions. In the end, all their efforts at assimilation came to naught: the American government under Andrew Jackson evicted them from their ancestral lands, driving them west along what came to be known as The Trail of Tears to Indian Territory in Oklahoma.
Broken Road, set against the historical backdrop of these events, follows several generations of one Native family – and the white women who enter their lives – in their quests for wealth, love, power and dignity. Embedded in the roots of mythology and sacred history of the “Real People” (the name by which the Cherokee referred to themselves), the novel is an account of the intense love-hate relationship between two peoples that was ultimately to end in the destruction of the Cherokee way of life.