Following the Mexican-American War of 1846–48 and the cession of a large swathe of the Southwest to the United States, the young French Jesuit priest Jean Marie Latour is sent by the Vatican to oversee a newly created diocese in New Mexico. Accompanied by Father Joseph Vallaint he traverses the barren desert, finding corrupt priests responsible for visiting abuse and harm on both the Mexican and indigenous populations.
Father Latour meets his challenging physical and spiritual journey with compassion, sensitivity and a reverence for the unforgiving terrain in which he finds himself. Death Comes for the Archbishop marks a shift from the Nebraska prairies, which served as a backdrop for much of Cather’s other writing.
Laurel Lefkow has given sympathetic readings of several novels by Willa Cather and she is no less effective here, mastering the author’s elegant prose with poise and aplomb.