Lidie's accounts of building a homestead, from buying a new stove to coming upon the finest horse in the territory (and among the finest in literature), combine character, charm, and social history. (Smiley's chapter titles alone-which include "I Eavesdrop, and Hear Ill of Myself" and "Papa Is Cordial"-are worth the price of admission. "Papa," by the way, is an aged anti- abolitionist who wants to marry her. ) But there is also menace. Early on, for example, Lidie pastes her home with "leaves of The Liberator and some other papers that Thomas had brought with him from the United States. This, he said, would serve the threefold purpose of advertising our views to our visitors, reminding ourselves of the arguments to be made in the cause, and keeping out the wind. Every leaf, according to the new laws of Kansas Territory, was treasonable. " Though Lidie once conjured up paradisal images of a "(weathertight and cozy) cabin," surrounded by fruit-laden trees, pure streams and verdant grass through which she'd dally, "perhaps in pursuit of a pretty little cow," their tiny home is freezing and their situation fraught with fear. The Newtons' first months are filled with the exhilaration of new marriage and the difficulties of life in a hostile environment. Winter kills off several of their fellow radicals and "the southerners" seem bent on violently removing the rest. Lidie unfortunately makes the mistake of finding the season more formidable: "The prolonged frigid weather made even the prospect of being hanged, shot, dismembered, killed or otherwise cleared out rather an abstract one. The possibility of being frozen to death was distinctly more likely. " The All-True Travels is a superb and well-informed reinvention. (In her acknowledgements, Smiley thanks David Dary, the fine historian of the American West. ) Who would have thought that a shipboard meal would be more like a pitched battle, or that-as Lidie soon discovers-sentiment would turn out to be "a cruel joke in K. T. "? At a certain point in the novel, however, the historical and social fabric becomes almost overwhelmingly dense. However, after her hero and heroine are ambushed by southerners, Smiley pares down the details and explores Lidie's character and conscience (as she is forced into a series of memorable guises), and her "all-true travels" take on emotional and ethical complexity.

She is particularly skilful at depicting interlocking lives, as in Sea Glass, and adroitly invests each with its own portion of love and tragedy. If you want to be one of the "early adopters" of Shreve's cherishable novels, now is the time: In the wet sand by her foot, a bit of colour catches her eye. The glass is green pale and cloudy, the colour of lime juice that has been squeezed into a glass. She brushes the sand off and presses the sea glass into her palm, keeping it for luck. -Barry Forshaw.

-Barry Forshaw.