Molly McNett is an instructor of fiction writing and ESL composition at Northern Illinois University. McNett recently released a new novel, Child of These Tears, which was named one of the Best Books of 2025 by The New Statesman.
Ahead of McNett's Jan. 22 reading excerpts from her book at The Rogue Bookshop in Beloit, Wisconsin, she sat down for an in-depth conversation about Child of These Tears with WNIJ host Jason Cregier.
(This is a portion of a longer conversation, edited for time and clarity. Listen to the full interview at the link above.)
Jason Cregier: How long did the research and character development for this novel take?
Molly McNett: I was laboring on the idea for five years, and I wrote a short story that was a captivity narrative. That led me to keep thinking about a longer story, which helped me form the characters.
JC: And the story is based loosely on the life of Eunice Williams, correct?
MN: That's right. Eunice Williams was a young girl from the colonial Massachusetts Bay Colony in Deerfield. In 1704, she was taken captive by the French and Mohawks and brought to Canada to live in a mission. In this novel, the story is fictionalized, with a fictional location and mission.
JC: Daily life back then was brutal. How did people continue to press on in the face of hardship?
MN: The big difference was people's faith; it's quite beautiful. They took everything as predestined. If something happened to you, it was because God wanted it to happen. You had to search your soul and ask, "Why? What does God want from me in this moment?"
JC: Many beliefs were for the greater back then.
MN: It was also true within the Mohawk society that they worked as a collective. There was a strong sense of community among them.
JC: As a parent of a young child, our ideas of parenting then and now are much different.
MN: The book can be a parent's worst nightmare, highlighting a child being taken by people who feel and believe very differently than you do.
JC: It's not all grief and sorrow; there are moments of levity too. The way the Mohawk tribe teases the Jesuit priest made me chuckle.
MN: They draw a goose on his bald head while he is sleeping. There are many playful moments like that.
JC: Molly, thanks for joining us for this chat.
MN: Thank you.
Molly McNett will read from her novel, Child of These Tears, on Friday, Jan. 22, at The Rogue Bookshop in Beloit, Wisconsin.
Copy Edited by Eryn Lent
