My Name Is a Knife

by Alix Hawley

Following on All True Not a Lie in It , her brilliant, award-winning first novel, Alix Hawley brings us the dramatic end of fabled frontiersman Daniel Boone's story - a heartbreaking and powerful imagining of a crucial period in North American history.

The truth of it is that Daniel Boone, captured by the Shawnee, now the adopted son of a chief he respects and husband to a Shawnee wife, does not want to come back to his settler life. But when he learns the Shawnee and the English plan to attack the fort he founded, where his white wife and children remain, he escapes in order to warn them. No arms open to greet him, Rebecca has taken all of their children save one - Jemima - back east. The other settlers view him with suspicion, and some of them want him hanged as a traitor. Yet even his enemies know that nobody but Boone can save them in the brutal siege of the fort that is soon upon them, led by Blackfish, Boone's Shawnee father.

Heartsick over the carnage, when the siege is over Boone travels east to retrieve his family. He finds a wife who has made a life for herself and their children, and still resents him for their oldest son's death. Slowly he woos her, until Rebecca finds herself following him back to Kentucky, to a new Boone settlement across the river from the old one. For a brief and peaceful time, Boone believes that maybe there's a way that indigenous and white can travel forward together, but inevitably he realizes that he can't control the juggernaut of hate and conquest that will soon roll over the Shawnee and the Cherokee. And he has to decide whether to simply be killed in the fighting, or to kill. In the tragic aftermath, Rebecca is left to wonder whether there is any way she can continue to love what remains of Boone.

Genres: Historical Fiction

Audible Audio

Published July 17, 2018

Reviews

[prescribed · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect sequel! I loved getting to hear Rebecca’s voice and the return of old Boone too.

[Cathryn Wellner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The folk hero American children grow up knowing about is in for some expanded history in this novel by a talented Canadian writer. A sequel to her first book, All True and Not a Lie in It, this novel takes Boone from his escape from the Shawnees through his defense of the Boonesborough fort and on through his troubled last years. This is a Boone unlike the brave woodsman I grew up hearing about it. This one is rough, raw, flawed and torn between the life he knew with the Shawnee people and the family he longs to reunite with. In the second part of the book we meet Rebecca and crawl inside her struggles with the return of the husband who left her behind.

The bones of the story fit with what I have read about Boone, though, of course, edited and embellished by a gifted novelist. Boone might not recognize himself in the character she paints, but she brings him to life in a story as complicated and colourful as he was.

[Suzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shimmering characters that reached deep down into my soul. Plenty of suspense and excitement coupled with intimate moments that revealed prickly emotions like jealousy, love, revenge and ambition. It may be a period piece but I found myself relating to these timeless emotions. Daniel and Rebecca will be with me for a long while. Each has a humor that I rarely encounter in books I read nowadays. I found myself laughing and then in the next moment I was on the edge of my seat. And the moment after that some heartbreaking revelation was revealed. It was the best kind of rollercoaster ride I could be on. And I loved how the author (Alix) remained so faithful to the language of the time. I desperately want a movie version of My Name is a Knife.

[Richard Burrage · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rarely in my experience have I found myself so uninterested in what happens in a story as I did with this one. Without spoiling anything since I decided not to bother finishing this book after 150 pages, the story jumps in about halfway through a larger story which clearly began in the author's previous book "All true, not a lie in it". Why the author, or more likely the publisher, chose not to release the whole thing together as a single book is a mystery, if you choose to ignore the financial component. Next time I'll start at the beginning.

[Marg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book as a Christmas present, and when I realized it was a sequel, got the first book (All True, Ain't a Lie In It) from the library so I could have the whole story. I shouldn't have bothered. I know some people really liked them, but they just weren't my cup of tea.

[Janilyn Kocher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn’t sold on the author’s depiction of either Boone or Rebecca.
It was interesting to read but I thought too many liberties were taken at the expense of the integrity of both main characters.
I don’t believe Daniel carried on with his SIL Martha.
And the Rebecca-Ned angle was beaten into the ground.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another beautiful written book by Alex Hawley.

[Liz Kalt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second half of the Boone story. Well written and interesting of the time.

[Chris R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the first book about Boone.
Loved this one, too.
All else aside, it's a reminder of how difficult and precarious life was on the frontier.