Title: The Lost Quilter
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publish Date: March 2009
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: Master Quilter Sylvia Bergstrom Compson treasures an antique quilt called by three names -- Birds in the Air, after its pattern; the Runaway Quilt, after the woman who sewed it; and the Elm Creek Quilt, after the place to which its maker longed to return. That quilter was Joanna, a fugitive slave who traveled by the Underground Railroad to reach safe haven in 1859 at Elm Creek Farm.
Though Joanna's freedom proved short-lived -- she was forcibly returned by slave catchers to Josiah Chester's plantation in Virginia -- she left the Bergstrom family a most precious gift, her son. Hans and Anneke Bergstrom, along with maiden aunt Gerda, raised the boy as their own, and the secret of his identity died with their generation. Now it falls to Sylvia -- drawing upon Gerda's diary and Joanna's quilt -- to connect Joanna's past to present-day Elm Creek Manor.
Just as Joanna could not have foreseen that, generations later, her quilt would become the subject of so much speculation and wonder, Sylvia and her friends never could have imagined the events Joanna witnessed in her lifetime. Punished for her escape by being sold off to her master's brother in Edisto Island, South Carolina, Joanna grieves over the loss of her son and resolves to run again, to reunite with him someday in the free North. Farther south than she has ever been, she nevertheless finds allies, friends, and even love in the slave quarter of Oak Grove, a cotton plantation where her skill with needle and thread soon becomes highly prized.
Through hardship and deprivation, Joanna dreams of freedom and returning to Elm Creek Farm. Determined to remember each landmark on the route north, Joanna pieces a quilt of scraps left over from the household sewing, concealing clues within the meticulous stitches. Later, in service as a seamstress to the new bride of a Confederate officer, Joanna moves on to Charleston, where secrets she keeps will affect the fate of a nation, and her abilities and courage enable her to aid the country and the people she loves most.
The knowledge that scraps can be pieced and sewn into simple lines -- beautiful both in and of themselves and also for what they represent and what they can accomplish -- carries Joanna through dark days. Sustaining herself and her family through ingenuity and art during the Civil War and into Reconstruction, Joanna leaves behind a remarkable artistic legacy that, at last, allows Sylvia to discover the fate of the long-lost quilter.
Review: I love the Elm Creek Quilters series. I've now read 6 of the 20 books in this series, and they are all top notch reads for me, The Lost Quilter was no different. An old desk with a locked draw uncovers old letters that detail a woman's search for a man. These letters unearth the story of Joanna North
This is the story of a runaway slave and her quest for freedom.
Joanna's story is heartbreaking and moving as we see her as she tries to escape to the north but ends up being caught and returned to her cruel owner.
Most of the Elm Creek novels that I've read are more lighthearted. This book is far from that, though it doesn't go as far as sugarcoating slavery. The reader will witness the cruelty of each of Joanna's masters, as they separate her from those she loves at every turn.
There was a point when Miss Evangaline and her husband are talking about Joanna's unwillingness to go to Charleston with them and her husband says "Negroes don't feel love or sadness the way we do. They may give the appearance of true feeling, but they understand these sensations only in a brute, rudimentary way, such as a dog or horse might." If that doesn't leave you feeling disturbed, then you you have no feeling.
Joanna faces so many hardships, but she manages to rise above it all. She's the strongest character I've read about in ages. She loses so much in her life, while doing so much. I wanted to hug her and take her and her family away.
I found tears in my eyes many times as the story progressed.
Ms. Chiaverini takes a subject that is uncomfortable to read about, and makes it palatable for the masses.
Rating: 5 flowers
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