Inside the mystery of America's first mystics

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From the Max Kade Institute for German American Studies Newsletter Spring 2006:

Jonathan D. Scott's The Woman in the Wilderness is a delightfully bold piece of historical fiction that merits enduring appreciation by the reading public...
The book takes a small but intriguing slice of early colonial pietist roots and presents it on a broad canvas of two continents over four different centuries. From a central Europe turbulent and fecund with occultism and spiritualism to the Lenape fastnesses beyond the early colonial settlements, Scott brings us into the world of Johannes Kelpius and the mystical community of the Wissahickon creek.
The result is a richly textured story that reveals the author's love of a specific place steeped in mystery as well as the universal spirituality and humanity that binds his characters down through the generations.
...it is tightly told and has its share of twists and turns. I like to think of it as a Pennsylvania German Da Vinci Code, without the car chases and the meddlesome authorities. Its author has a keen eye for historical detail and a fondness for those who keep mysterious legacies alive.
...it opens unique perspectives on the potential role of spirituality in community life. In our era of tensions over the role of religion in politics and the principle of separation of church and state, Scott's depiction of life in the Wissahickon community prompts one to wonder if there is not a kinder, gentler way to dialogue and consensus on these issues.

Review by Dennis Boyer,a former Berks County (PA) resident who lives and writes in southwest Wisconsin. He has written collections of Midwest stories on ghosts, railroads, taverns, hunting and fishing. He is the author of Once Upon a Hex: A Spiritual Ecology of the Pennsylvania Germans