Shadow of the Moon, the powerful work of fiction that Jones's fans have long awaited, takes us on a great expedition from Scotland to the untamed wilds of the Ohio River Valley. Though the physical journey is arduous - filled with death, fear, courage, and suffering - another journey emerges, one that brings these characters from their diverse backgrounds to a newly forged common identity as Americans.

We follow Young Bone Trudeau, freed African slave; Noble Popjoy, half-Delaware Indian wilderness guide; the Chesney family; and a supporting cast of European immigrants as they grapple with the birth of this new republic, and defend it with their lives if necessary.

Jones's characters are as vast and unpredictable as the wilderness they set out to conquer, especially the enterprising matriarch of the Chesney clan: pipe-smoking, savvy businesswoman Nalambigi Chesney, who calls herself a "red savage heathen" as she beats the white man at his own game over and over again. We also watch the lives of her children - Campbell, Gance, and Clariese - unfold and sometimes unravel, as they strive to put their own imprint on the face of this newly settled land.