Beverly Lewis. Bethany, $ 26.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-7642-3327-2
Best Selling Lewis (Child of mine) returns with a resplendent story of love, loss and faith within the Amish community of Lancaster, PA. Anna, in her twenties, after breaking up, moves in with her mother’s cousin Sadie to change the pace despite her parents’ disapproval and her own concerns about the departure of her sick grandmother, Eliza, who has Alzheimer’s disease. . Unlike Anna’s mother’s family, who are part of the more modern Beachy Amish, Sadie and her side of the family are Old Order. Soon Anna is presented with two suitors: Mart, who comes from a sect similar to Anna’s, or Gabe, an Old Order widower with a troubled young girl. As her bond with Gabe and her daughter grows stronger, Anna reflects on the differences between Amish communities, learns stories about her grandmother caught between two Amish sects 70 years ago, and discovers that many paths lead to the same God. Gabe and Anna’s redemptive union is all the more poignant alongside Eliza’s fleeting memories of losing the man she loved due to the same island divisions. Lewis fans will be in for a treat. (September)
