About The Solace of Water
- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Thomas Nelson (June 5, 2018)
“Younts has set herself apart with this exquisite story of friendship and redemption . . . I’ll be talking about this book for years to come.” —Rachel Hauck, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Dress
In a time of grief and heartache, an unlikely friendship provides strength and solace.
After leaving her son’s grave behind in Montgomery, Alabama, Delilah Evans has little faith that moving to her husband’s hometown in Pennsylvania will bring a fresh start. Enveloped by grief and doubt, the last thing Delilah imagines is becoming friends with her reclusive Amish neighbor, Emma Mullet—yet the secrets that keep Emma isolated from her own community bond her to Delilah in delicate and unexpected ways.
Delilah’s eldest daughter, Sparrow, bears the brunt of her mother’s pain, never allowed for a moment to forget she is responsible for her brother’s death. When tensions at home become unbearable for her, she seeks peace at Emma’s house and becomes the daughter Emma has always wanted. Sparrow, however, is hiding secrets of her own—secrets that could devastate them all.
With the white, black, and Amish communities of Sinking Creek at their most divided, there seems to be little hope for reconciliation. But long-buried hurts have their way of surfacing, and Delilah and Emma find themselves facing their own self-deceptions. Together they must learn how to face the future through the healing power of forgiveness.
Eminently relevant to the beauty and struggle in America today, The Solace of Water offers a glimpse into the turbulent 1950s and reminds us that friendship rises above religion, race, and custom—and has the power to transform a broken heart.
Purchase Links
Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble
Review: I have to admit that the idea of a historical Amish novel really intrigued me. Add an African American family that has experienced a great loss and I'm really intrigued. I've read many novels that have main characters that are Amish, this is the first book where another main character wasn't white. This made this book very different.
Its two very different families, each with their own set of very big problems. The setting is a small town in Pennsylvania in the 1950s.
The story is told in three separate points of view, Emma, the Amish woman, Delilah, the African American woman and lastly, Sparrow, Delilah's daughter. The two families have similarities and differences. Both women's husbands were preachers. Both families also have secrets.
I understood the grief that Delilah was dealing with, but her treatment of her daughter, angered me so much that I really hated this character and I didn't want to. She lost a child tragically and head her daughter responsible, but I really found Delilah to be unnecessarily cruel to borderline abusive towards Sparrow.
Emma's problems are very different, and the way the Amish were portrayed in this book was different from the shiny happy versions of Amish life that I'm used to reading. There wasn't a lot of talk about faith and the community didn't feel as close knit as what I'm used to reading about. My only issue on Emma's part of the story had to do with her way of avoiding having children.
Yet through the problems both families are dealing with the two families seem to be coming together in ways neither of them want.
There's also a matter of racial tensions in small town America that really come to a head, proving that things weren't all great in the north either.
This was a very unique read, full of gut wrenching emotion that's often a little bit uncomfortable in the issues that it deals with, but oh so great a read.
Rating: 5 flowers
About Elizabeth Byler Younts
Elizabeth Byler Younts gained a worldwide audience through her first book Seasons: A Real Story of an Amish Girl and is a RITA nominated writer. She is also the author of The Promise of Sunrise series. She has consulted on Amish lifestyle and the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect two award-winning television shows. Elizabeth lives in Central Pennsylvania with her husband, two daughters, and a cockapoo named Fable.
1 comments:
Thanks for being on the tour!
Post a Comment