The conglomerate of Italian writers formerly known in another life as Luther Blisset rewrite American history in fictional form in Manituana. Leading up and into the American Revolutionary War Wu Ming takes on the issues that led most of the Iroquois tribes in upstate New York to side with the British against the rebel American colonialists. It's mostly about land and culture--ambition and greed. The mentality of those who want more which in the next century was to push the have nots further and further west--encroaching more and more on indigenous territory leading to numerous conflicts and wars.

This novel revolves around the Mohawk Indian chieftian Joseph Brant and his sister Molly determination to hold on to their land and their customs and culture. Set mostly in upstate New York the battle for territorial rights takes many different twists and turns. Their alliances with loyalist groups and militias gives us a not very often seen picture of American history and the novel seems to follow a chronology of historic event including a trip to London England by Brant and a contingent of loyalist leaders to see King George III to the bloody battle scenes that make up a good part of the last third of the book.

It's interesting as well for me because upstate New York is the place where I live. The Newtown battlefield site (only briefly touched on in this work) is only a few miles from here. Whatever the case General John Sullivan's campaign against the Iroquois tribes passed right through the valley and surrounding hills where I now to live which makes it all easy to imagine. That 5 Italian authors collaborating under a pseudonym would have an interest in this particular subject is a little surprising but they do an excellent job nonetheless. It reads very well--imagines the characters and the issues of the times very realistically. Beyond that it is an engaging and fun read. I would definitely recommend it. ( )

Fiction, Historical fiction, Based on real-life, American Revolution, During the American Revolution, the tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy (Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca, except the Oneida and Tuscarora tribes which had supported the Americans), led by the Mohawk sachem, Joseph Brant (Thayendanega), joined the British, Brant was convinced the Iroquois would lose their land if the Americans won, He led his warriors North to stop the American invasion of Canada in 1775-76, Brant participated with Walter Butler and his Tory Rangers in raids in New York and Pennsylvania, The Continental Congress sent out a punitive expedition under General John Sullivan, who in 1779 defeated Butler and his Iroquois allies, The invasion of their homeland in 1779 drove many of the Iroquois into southern Ontario where they have remained ( )