I had the very good fortune to read this book when it was in Galleys, and it is wonderful. It's one of the earliest books written in the USA, and was written by a woman. Set in Fall River, Massachussetts in the 18th century, it tells the tale of a young girl who is seduced, impregnated, and then abandoned and defamed by an scoundrel of a minister. What was truely striking (apart from the quality of the writing), was how little things had changed in the intervening period. As I was reading the galleys, a very similar case was being tried in the same area. Well worth reading, not only for its style, but also for its content, and for its depiction of life in New England in that time.